Life is Hail

[SonOfThomp]

Greets, All:

My '61 was caught in the central Texas hail storm a couple of weeks ago.
Every panel is damaged, even the stainless spear on one side. It looks like the insurance is going to make it close to possible to repair it. Some painting is going to be required, so I'm thinking that the hood and trunk might be cheaper to replace than repair. Does anybody in the general vicinity of Austin know where a trunk lid might be had? It's a Bel Air sedan. As far as I know, only a Bel Air trunk lid (or correct me) will do, as the Biscayne doesn't have the stainless across the top, and the Impala has those extra tail lights.

Thanks
A Sad SoT

 

[petepedlar]

Wow...... that's to bad..... I've seen what hail can do....... thankfully yours can be fixed and that you had insurance.

Dave

 

[SonOfThomp]

I might add that the dings, though numerous, are small. There is one that must have been caused by a hail stone the size of a softball! Anyway, the dings are small.
The newer cars in the same area (including a Lincoln, a BMW, and a Audi dealership) suffered rather more. OK, a lot more. Like someone gave a dozen monkeys a box of hammers. And a quart of gin . . . .

 

[61BISCAYNE]

If the dings are small, it is probably nothing a skim coat of glazing putty and a long sanding block can't fix pretty easily Follow that with a couple coats of high build primer and more blocking and you will be in good shape. Chances are that if you can find another hood and trunk, they will need just as much or more work.

 

[PAINTJOHN1]

Greets, All:

My '61 was caught in the central Texas hail storm a couple of weeks ago.
Every panel is damaged, even the stainless spear on one side. It looks like the insurance is going to make it close to possible to repair it. Some painting is going to be required, so I'm thinking that the hood and trunk might be cheaper to replace than repair. Does anybody in the general vicinity of Austin know where a trunk lid might be had? It's a Bel Air sedan. As far as I know, only a Bel Air trunk lid (or correct me) will do, as the Biscayne doesn't have the stainless across the top, and the Impala has those extra tail lights.

Thanks
A Sad SoT

Before you have your car painted and repaired,look into the mobile dentless paint repair guys in your area.I'm a vendor for car dealerships in the Maryland area.All car dealerships have dent guys that come in and repair small dings like hail damage,door dings and light soft dents.This is done with no paint work at all.Its done with long rods that are bent to get leverage to take the ding or dent out from inside the panel,or the inside of the roof.I've seen these guys take a hundred hail dents out of a car in 3 hours with no paint work at all.Call any dealership in your area that sells new cars and ask them to give you a number of their mobile dent guy.They will come to you to make the repair.Give it a shot,their really inexpensive to use and I think you will be surprised at the quality of work they will do.These guys work on everything from Mercedes to Kia's. Hopefully they can make that SAD SOT a HAPPY SOT !!!! John

 

[Phil Reed]

I'm sold on Dentless Removal. My black dually got hammered about 3 years ago and when the guy was done........all dents but one came out!!! Cost about $800 after insurance said it was like $4000 damage!!!!

I'd certainly try that first........

 

[61BISCAYNE]

I had paintless repair done on a '93 Chevy truck with great results!
I am curious though just how well it works on the heavier gauge metal
used on our older cars as opposed to the beer can thickness on the newer cars.

 

[SonOfThomp]

Paintless guy saw it today and said, "Take it to the body shop".
Thanks, all
SoT