Q&A with Tim Ridley Part 2 - The Impact of Hail Damage on the Resale of Your Car and PDR

Part 2 of our up close and personal Q&A with Tim Ridley, owner operator at Dent Revolution specialising in repairing hail damage on vehicles. Car owners always worry about the resale of their car after it has been damaged by hail, but with Paintless Dent Repair the resale can be maintained. Repairing dents from hail is different to standard dents and needs a special touch, read on for this informative Q&A with Tim.

What happens to most cars that have been severely damaged by hail repair?

"People buy hail damaged cars because they get them at a good price. Many people will trade their hail damaged cars in and car yards will sell them off. They end up in panel shops and get a big makeover but it's never quite the same again. No it is cost effective to fix hail-damage cars and the resale is maintained.

What do you need to watch out for when buying a hail-damaged car?

We are experts in assessing hail damage so we know what we can fix or not. It is a risky decision because you cannot really know how much it will cost to fix or if it can be fixed at all, best to err on the side of caution. In some cases, we have provided a consultancy service for an accurate assessment where we physically view the car (as photos can be unreliable) and provide a quote.

Can PDR repair all hail damage? What is realistic in terms of hail repair?

No it cannot. It depends on the level of damage to the vehicle and the size of the hail. If there is a high volume of small hail damage then it can be difficult. Or if there are large baseball size hail stones, this can also be a difficult job and it might be better to replace the panels.

If there is cracked paint, we may need to respray the panel. Generally if we have cracked paint but the damage is not too bad we do push-to-paint, which means the panel returns to original shape and the paint shop will respray.

Can you bring a hail damaged car back to factory condition with PDR?

Yes and no. A car has normal wear and tear, so we can’t say “factory condition” but we can bring it back to excellent condition with original paint intact and this is always best because you don’t get colour differences and textures. Therefore it keeps the integrity of the panels and the resale value intact.

If so, is the car’s resale value still impacted and how?

It’s obvious – any car that is in excellent condition will have better resale, even if the potential buyer knows about the dent repair. Today if a car has had PDR done, it will have minimal impact on people's desire to purchase it, as opposed to buying a car that has not had PDR but has been fixed using conventional crash repair methods. It is still closer to original condition with PDR.

Do you have any examples of buying or selling hail damaged cars where PDR has been a saviour?

We recently had the pleasure of working on a beautiful Mercedes S500 valued at $400K that was very badly hail damaged. You can read more about it here. We assessed the damage and set about getting it back to great condition with PDR (Paintless Dent Repair). We were stoked and so was the owner. The panels and paintwork were all kept intact, and the car looks as new.

That’s the beauty of PDR done by specialists. We specialise in luxury and classic cars because we are really skilled at this type of work and we love it.

What about insurance – how does this cover hail repair and what are the options?

Check your policy to make sure you can choose your repairer. It is a good idea to visit us before you make the claim and we can provide general advice and a quote. You can take this information to your insurance company and they will add us as your preferred repairer.

We do our best to make the hail repair process as stressless as possible for you because we know people worry about their car’s resale. But if the damage can be fixed with PDR, then your car’s resale is maintained."

Give us a call here at Dent Revolution on 1800 NO DENT or drop in for a visit and we are happy to have an obligation free chat with you about the extent of your hail damage and what can realistically be done with your car.

 

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