Will it hail on my car this year? After 2 consecutive years of significant summer hail, inquiring minds in Denver want to know. Many customers have also asked how we repair hail damage.
"Do you have anything to tell me if hail is coming to Colorado this year?" That’s the question I posed to the head of one of the largest PDR (hail repair) companies in Colorado. I thought that surely a company that lives or dies based upon a very unpredictable niche weather condition would definitely have the finest weather prediction technology available.
Surely a multimillion dollar industry has retained some of the brightest minds in all of
academia to tell them if it’s going to hail this year and where. His big answer: "Well, nothing’s really more accurate than the Farmers Almanac". A publication debuting in 1818 is still the leading forecaster for weather.... Back to my Ouija board I suppose.
Hail is most common in mid-latitudes during early summer where surface temperatures are warm enough to promote the instability associated with strong thunderstorms, but the upper atmosphere is still cool enough to support ice.
Well, if I can’t tell you if and when hail will hit this summer, I can at least tell you how we repair your hail damaged car. On the light end of the spectrum, hail presents itself as hundreds of little light indentations on the panels of your car. These can be difficult to see unless viewed in the correct light and by a trained eye. Frequently, the dent happens without breaking the factory paint job. To maintain the factory finish, this type of hail can be repaired with a process known as PDR (paintless dent repair).
A conventional dent repair consists of pulling the dented metal outwards from the outside of the vehicle and then repainting the affected area; PDR is the opposite. The vehicles various interior trim panels are removed and highly trained technicians use specially designed tools to flex the metal back into its original formation without breaking the paint. PDR is usually less expensive than conventional repair since the shop is repairing a few dents on the panel and
skipping the labor and materials for painting.
On the heavy side of the spectrum hail can get nasty. Broken windshields and head lights are a real possibility. And since PDR is charged per dent, if there are too many dents, it might just become more cost effective to cut off the old panel and put on a new one. Denver received this type of hail in September of 2014. It was so widespread that parts dealers had trouble keeping commonly hit parts like roofs and hoods in stock. We saw parts being back ordered and delayed repairs for as long as 6 months.
So will it hail on Denver this year? As of May 3, 2016, hail is hitting a lot of states pretty hard, notably Texas and Washington DC within the last few weeks. Colorado has had its fair share of moisture coming recently in the form of snow. With the current uptick in the temperature I would bet we will be looking at hail here very shortly. Besides.... my Ouija board said so.
Don't panic when hail hits your car. Contact the Addison Auto Body Shop, your hail damage repair service experts, at (303) 691-9484 or online.
