What happens at a hail damage estimate?

At a hail estimate, a technician counts every dent on the car, sizes each one and writes them down panel by panel. You come away with a list that shows the damage and names the dents that may not come out, before any work is agreed.

That list is the whole point of the visit. It is what you hold up against your deductible, your carrier's numbers and your own plans for the car.

A single storm can leave more dents than you would guess from the driveway. On April 13, 2018, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged 11 reports of 1 inch or larger hail within 10 miles of Overland Park. The biggest stones reported near there that day reached 2 inches. A car parked in the open through a day like that can carry dents of several sizes on every panel.

You cannot sort that out by eye in a parking lot. Small dents on a silver roof can vanish at noon and show up at dusk. The estimate is where it gets sorted, one panel and one dent at a time.

Below is the visit from start to finish, plus how to read the list you get at the end.

Before anyone arrives

You do not need to prepare much. Park the car where there is room to walk all the way around it. Shade or a garage helps, because each panel gets read by reflected light.

If the car has a roof rack or a cargo box, mention it on the call. Racks can hide dents underneath them.

Have your storm photos handy, along with the date of the storm. If you know of dents or chips from before the hail, make a note of them. Those get listed apart from the hail damage, so they do not blur the count.

If you have opened a claim, keep the claim number nearby. If you have not, that is fine. The estimate works the same either way, and nothing about it opens a claim for you.

The first lap

The visit starts with a slow lap of the car. This first pass is about the damage that is not a dent.

Cracked glass, broken lights, split mirror housings and loose trim all get noted. So do chips in the paint you can see without any special light. These items change the shape of the job, so they go on the list before a single dent is counted.

Counting, one panel at a time

Then the light board comes out. The technician sets it against one panel and works across the surface in sections. Each dent shows up as a kink in the reflected lines.

The count is kept per panel, never as one total for the whole car. The hood gets its own count. So do the roof, the trunk lid or liftgate, each door, each fender and each quarter panel. Roof rails and pillars get checked too, because they are easy to skip.

Sizes are given in coin terms. A dime, a nickel, a quarter and a half dollar are the usual steps. Anything larger gets measured on its own.

Some estimates in the trade group each panel's dents into count ranges instead of exact tallies. Either way, the panel, the count and the size are the backbone of the estimate.

The dents that get flagged

Some dents get more than a count and a size. They get a note beside them.

A dent with cracked paint at its center gets flagged for a refinish. A dent on a hem, a body line or a brace gets flagged as one that may come out only most of the way. A spot with no room behind it gets flagged for access.

This is the part a rushed estimate skips. It is also the part that keeps the finished car from surprising you. Hailsmith names these dents at the estimate, one by one, before you agree to anything. Why they behave differently is covered in can PDR fix every hail dent.

Reading the finished list

The finished list reads like a map of the car. Each panel gets a line. Each line shows the count, the sizes and any flagged dents, with a reason beside every flag.

Below the dents come the other items. Parts that have to come off for access, such as taillights, trim or the headliner, show up as R&I. Parts that need replacing, like a cracked mirror housing, get their own line. Panels headed to a body shop are marked that way.

Read it from top to bottom with three questions in mind. Which panel took the most damage? Which dents will not come out fully? What needs work beyond the dents?

If any line does not make sense, ask about it on the spot. A good list should hold up to every question you have. Take a photo of it, or ask for a copy, so you can read it again at home before you call your carrier.

What the list is for

The list is a record of your car's damage on one date. You can set it beside your deductible to see whether a claim makes sense. You can set it beside your carrier's estimate if one comes later.

It also helps if another storm comes through before the repair. A dated, panel by panel list shows what the first storm did. What to do after hail explains where the count fits in the order of things after a storm.

Nothing on the list commits you to anything. The repair starts only once you say yes, and once your carrier authorizes it if a claim is open.

What comes after

If you go ahead, the repair follows the list. Each panel gets worked until it reads flat under the light, or as close as the flagged dents allow. Parts marked R&I come off, then go back on. If a flagged dent stops short, that matches what the list told you before work began.

The steps from the first call to the finished car are laid out on how it works. The list you got at the estimate is the yardstick for all of it.

Start with the list

Call for a free assessment and tell us the spot where the car sits. You get every dent counted and sized by panel, with the hard ones named up front. Then you decide what happens next with the full list in your hand.