Local auto body shops are experiencing an onslaught of dented vehicles in the aftermath of a powerful hailstorm that wreaked havoc at 108 Mile Ranch and other areas north of 100 Mile House on Sept. 3.
More than 1,000 area cars and trucks were pounded by golf ball-sized hail that pelted down for less than 10 minutes, many of them incurring dents all over the body work and panels.
Sunrise Ford Body Shop co-ordinator Matt Wiesendahl says they are seeing anywhere from 50 to 300 dents or more on each vehicle, with claims ranging “roughly” from $1,500 to $7,000.
“To my knowledge, ICBC received over 1,000 claims [from the hailstorm damage]. That’s ICBC alone, that doesn’t include [third party] insurances.
“We are sitting on well over 100 claims. I think the bulk of it has come in, but we’ve still got some stragglers coming in the door.”
Several paintless dent repair (PDR) companies from the Lower Mainland have brought mobile services to the South Cariboo to assist area body shops with the major influx of damaged vehicles.
The body shops do all the insurance claim paperwork, and some of the body work and panel replacements, but Sunrise Ford sub-lets much of the work to a PDR company over the past month, which Wiesendahl says does “phenomenal” work.
The large amount of paperwork has contributed to the current backlog of vehicles awaiting repairs, he notes.
“We’ve probably got about two months worth of work left in the hail damage alone. And … we’ve still got other collision and deer hits and all that other work to do, too.”
Hammer Collision Ltd. owner Dave Hamar says his shop has also been very busy with hail damage, and doing lots of work in combination with a PDR company, to which it also sub-lets much of the basic dent repairs.
Hamar estimates he has written somewhere around 150 claims, which range between about $700- $12,000.
“I would guess the average is somewhere in the neighbourhood of about $6,000.
“I’ve seen over 700 dents in a single panel, in a roof. I’ve got a couple claims that are [about] $12,000.”
Hail claims are always a lot more paperwork than traditional collision repairs, Hamar explains, as estimates are sometimes redone a couple of times to meet the customer’s needs.
Like the others, his body shop has a current backlog from the hail damage, but Hamar notes there are also many customers booking their repairs for next spring. He adds the PDR also cuts down significantly on the repair cycle time.
“We’re probably [at about] 100 that we are going to actually fix. There were a large number of total losses.”
Gail Thorne, Central GM’s Transformers Collision Centre administrator, says the extent of the damage seemed to depend on where the vehicle had been during the storm.
Some had dents only on one side, she notes, as though they had been parked with the other side protected.
“On some it was all over, where it’s really, really bad – probably 150-200 dents – or some just had two or three dents.”
Thorne says the hail damage was mostly seen on vehicle hoods, roofs and down the sides, with hardly any glass impacts.
“We just did one that got finished [last week], and it took us 22 days to repair it.”
That Dodge pickup had about 60 dents on the roof, a broken glass sunroof and about 100-125 dents all over it, she explains.
Thorne adds that total damage bill was close to $12,000.
They are just beginning the body work, so she notes there is currently a significant backlog of vehicles awaiting repair, although they are also sub-letting much of the work to a PDR company.
“It took us a whole month and a bit to write the claims and get them approved.”
Many Transformers customers have opted to wait for spring to have the dents repaired, Thorne adds, rather than risk more damage from winter gravel chips on a newly-repaired vehicle.
However, she explains the insurance companies ask that the claims are all put in now for the springtime repairs.
“We feel that we’ve got it under control now, but for the first month to month-and-a-half, it was kind of crazy.”
After six years in the local body shop business, Thorne says she has never seen hail damage to anywhere near this extent.
