Roof Hail Damage Repair in Kansas City

You stood on the door sill after the storm and looked across the roof. Rows of dimples caught the light in every direction. On most cars that took a hail hit, the roof is where the count climbs highest. It lies flat and faces the sky, so it meets the stones head on.

That sounds like bad news. For paintless repair, the roof is a panel with good access. Most of it can be reached from inside the car, once the headliner comes down. The spots that cannot are easy to name, and you hear them at the free assessment.

You may also be the last to see it. From the driveway, you mostly see the hood and the doors. On a truck or an SUV, the roof sits above eye level, so a heavy count can hide in plain sight. Look from a porch step in low sun, and the picture changes.

A ceiling that comes down

The headliner is the fabric ceiling inside your car. Behind it sits the underside of the roof. To reach the dents from below, the headliner gets lowered.

That starts with the parts holding it in place. The sun visors, the grab handles, the dome light and the trim along the pillars usually come off first. Then the headliner eases down at one end, and a rod can slide into the space above it.

A headliner is a shaped board wrapped in fabric. Bend it too far and it kinks, and a kink in a headliner shows for good. So it gets handled with care, kept supported while it is down and refitted when the roof is finished.

On many newer cars, curtain airbags run along each side of the roof, tucked above the headliner. Wiring for the dome light, the visors and any roof sensors runs through there too. Both are reasons lowering a headliner calls for a careful hand. With a sunroof, the headliner also wraps around the opening, which leaves less room to lower it.

Bows across the underside

Above the headliner, a few metal bows run from one side of the roof to the other. They hold the roof's shape and keep it from drumming at speed. On many cars, they are set against the skin with a flexible adhesive.

A dent sitting right over a bow is the hardest one on the roof. The brace stands between the rod and the dent, and it stiffens the skin above it. A technician may come in beside the bow at an angle, or pull from the outside with a glue tab. Some bow dents come out fully. Some come most of the way.

Those are the dents worth asking about at the estimate. The bows cover a small strip of the roof, so their dents are usually a small share of the count. They still get their own line, so you know exactly which ones they are.

Edges, rails and the opening

The roof meets the rest of the car along its edges. There the metal turns down toward the pillars and the door openings, and it gets stiff. Dents along that turn take more work than dents out in the open middle. A stone that lands right on the turn can leave a dent that wraps over the edge, which is harder still.

Roof rails and crossbars mount at points along the top. Some come off to clear the way for the rod or the light. Others stay put, and the dents around their mounts get worked around them. A roof antenna bolts through the skin from below, so dents close to its base sit behind that mount.

A sunroof takes up part of the underside with its frame and its drainage channels. Dents near the opening are harder to reach than dents near the center. If a branch came down with the storm and left a line rather than a dimple, read crease dent repair. A line follows different rules from a round hail dent.

Counting a roof

Roofs are where counts run long, so the count needs patience. The roof gets read in sections under a light board, front to back, with each dent marked as it turns up. Small dents that vanish in flat daylight show up plainly against the lines.

Each dent gets a size as well as a mark. A roof with many small, shallow dents is a different job from one with fewer large, deep ones. The count, the sizes and the dents over the bows all go on the estimate for your carrier to review.

Paint gets its own look. A big stone can chip the paint at the center of a dent, and a roof bakes in the sun all summer. Any dent with broken paint is named, since PDR moves the metal but cannot repair the finish.

Before the claim call

The roof is easy to undercount from the ground. So get it looked at before you guess at the damage on the phone. A real count gives you specific numbers to talk through when you call your carrier. Photos of the roof, taken from a step before the car gets washed, help as well. What to do after hail covers the photos and the first calls in order.

Your policy sets the deductible. Your carrier applies it and decides what it authorizes. The estimate gives it a roof count to work from, panel by panel with the rest of the car. How it works walks through every step of the visit.

Call for a free assessment. The roof gets worked right where the car is parked.