I've done some bodywork in the past - but I have never encountered hail damage this severe. A tornado had blown threw Kentucky a few months ago - and subsequently I bought an Oldsmobile Alero parts-car and the owner changed the hood and trunk lid with his hail damaged parts. So I have an Alero that I replaced an engine and now I have a hood / trunk lid to repair. I have no idea what to do with this mess of hail damage. I primed / found the dents / filled the dents / hit the filler / it's still not straight. I'm wondering what else you guys may have tried for heavily hail damaged cars? Quick Slick? I know the best idea is to replace the panels but it's a brother/brother project and he's off school for the summer - so we got plenty of bonding time to get this right. I'll get it straight after a while - but what do you guys do with this hail stuff?
Fixing Severe Hail Damage ??
- Thread starter kingsobieski
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Replace the hood, period... Fix the trunk.
If you have access to an oxy-acetylene torch you can get them out by heating the dent red hot and hitting it with a cool wet towel. The hot to cold change pulls the dent out.
Use that junk hood to practice...
If you have access to an oxy-acetylene torch you can get them out by heating the dent red hot and hitting it with a cool wet towel. The hot to cold change pulls the dent out.
Use that junk hood to practice...
Here's the car right after being bought from Craigslist. My brother bought it with the intent to use the body panels to fix his hail-damaged car.
The parts-car isn't really too bad of shape besides the blown engine and the f'd windows and piles of cat puke.
Used engine from a Randezvous.
Hail-damaged hood the parts-car inherited. Hail-damage is a b*tch. More hours are in this hood than anything else I did to the car.
Side-swipe was much easier to straighten than the hail damage.
Blake was correct about the trunk lid - it was easily repaired. I guess it's less flimsy than the hood.
Arrest-Me-Red
The parts-car isn't really too bad of shape besides the blown engine and the f'd windows and piles of cat puke.
Used engine from a Randezvous.
Hail-damaged hood the parts-car inherited. Hail-damage is a b*tch. More hours are in this hood than anything else I did to the car.
Side-swipe was much easier to straighten than the hail damage.
Blake was correct about the trunk lid - it was easily repaired. I guess it's less flimsy than the hood.
Arrest-Me-Red
These newer cars use high tension steel that you can't fix like the old days. My Sunfire had "hail damage" that I think was actually done by an ex-girlfriend with a golf club. I tried and failed, so I replaced the hood and fenders, and the doors I am still playing with.
I'm continuing with trying to fix the hood. Refilled today and shot in primer and blocked it out - it looks like it'll be straight enough. I definitely recommend not repairing hail damaged parts if replacement is available. Time/Material/Effort is not equivalent to the end result which may be a somewhat straight part but it's what I'm running what I got. Will be onto jamming this weekend.
Second filling
2k urethane primer
Side-swipe gone
Second filling
2k urethane primer
Side-swipe gone
We be jammminnnnnnnnnnnn! What yall think about the color? I'm way past the point of turning around 8) Hail damage is a motha but i'll find out the end result this weekend when I get some free time to throw some paint at it. Around 3hrs to mask the car. I'm beginning to remember why I switched to turning wrenches instead of huffing paint.
The finished product at its best 
The body work is pretty obvious but its good enough. My brother is happy it looks like a respectable automobile finally.
The body work is pretty obvious but its good enough. My brother is happy it looks like a respectable automobile finally.
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