I should have bought a White TDI Passat

Mother nature has not been kind. Have not made the first payment yet on our (First VW) 2014 Silver Passat TDI Prem. We had Hail to the tune of 3800 dollars this week. If I would have listened to the Wife we would have bought the White Passat then I could have advertized for Titleist.

So the body shop (Of which I trust) say they will be dropping the headliner and all of the interior trim. Taillights and the hood sound proofing material. Is there anything I should document first? How bad can this get?

Ive been lucky in the past and have never had to go thru this to this extent.

It's usually a paintless dent repair technique that is used here. It's just labor intensive. It can also result in having to drill holes for access on the underside of something like a hood depending upon how the sheetmetal is laid out.

That sucks. Did it just happen yesterday or today? Lots of storms rolled (and are still rolling) into our area.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the hail, but it seems all too common in your neck of the woods. Perhaps investing in a VW-style hail net to cover your driveway would be a good idea.

Welcome to the forums, Lou... I hope you can make it to TDIFest this year... it's being held in St. Louis on Labor Day weekend.

oilhammer said:

That sucks. Did it just happen yesterday or today? Lots of storms rolled (and are still rolling) into our area.

Click to expand...

Happened yesterday downtown. I was at work. All of the hail fell in about 60 seconds. It completely covered the ground. Dime to Quarter size.

We had baseball to softball size hail just north of me within the hour. Nothing here, but the news photos are crazy - this stuff just tooled through glass like it wasn't there . . .

- Tim

dents

Check at your local VW dealer- I'm sure they have a paintless dent removal guy. I went through a bad hail storm near KC and the pdr guy got all out but a couple small ones. The insurance company paid me a bunch more than the pdr guy's bill too.

I had hail damage to a Honda Accord back in 2001. Dime size was largest. Paintless dent removal got the dents out without any "body work". But they had to remove the headliner and A/B/C pillar trim. Some nut job that removed/installed the headliner didn't wash his hands carefully and got greasy hand prints on the headliner. Pain in the A$$ to get it cleaned. Pain in the A$$ to convince they dirtied it up. I had no proof it wasn't dirty to begin with. Take LOTS of pictures of the interior so you have proof something was clean prior to them getting their grubby hands on it.

Great time to add some sound proofing with all the panels and liner removed.

Sorry to hear about the damage, especially when it's so new.

TDI in the Lou said:

Happened yesterday downtown. I was at work. All of the hail fell in about 60 seconds. It completely covered the ground. Dime to Quarter size.

Click to expand...

Yeah around mid-morning it got really dark...I didn't notice any hail from where I work (9th and Olive) but it was definitely hail weather.

I am moving to a job in Washington, MO in about a month. Unfortunately I saw today that there was a super cell crossing overhead. I'm going to miss my parking garage.

Hail is horrible, luckily I've never had any serious damage from a storm.

This is the worst hailstorm I've ever seen, May, 1995, Fort Worth, TX.
I got a smoking deal on a '95 Golf after this storm though. The dealer even paid for the repairs.

http://www.k5kj.net/19950505.htm

...hmm...now I'm even happier I swapped our black 2012 for a white 2014, with an upcoming move to Ft. Worth in July.

(I need to be more specific with my prayer requests for hail...I only want the aging cedar shake roof on the house we're buying to be destroyed BEFORE we buy it...I didn't ask for regional hail...promise...)

Just dropped my "moon buggy" off at the body shop. They are not sure that PDR will be possible to repair all the dents. I hope Tungsten Silver blends well.

Picked up the rental. KIA Soul. Not bad. Killer stereo. But I am a diesel guy now. Besides someone already stole the hamster head.

I hate the Soul. Like so many of those type cars, you cannot SEE out of them. Not as bad as the HHR, but almost. And the rear hatch is smaller than you'd think from the shape of the thing. I'm not sure what kind of niche those fit into, but they found one as they sell decently (they are REALLY cheap). I'd much rather have the Elantra/Forte that it is based on, though.

^^^^^^^^^^

I always suspected you had no Soul.

oilhammer said:

I hate the Soul. Like so many of those type cars, you cannot SEE out of them. Not as bad as the HHR, but almost. And the rear hatch is smaller than you'd think from the shape of the thing. I'm not sure what kind of niche those fit into, but they found one as they sell decently (they are REALLY cheap). I'd much rather have the Elantra/Forte that it is based on, though.

Click to expand...

Horrible car, and the whole Hyundai lineup is junk IMHO. Not impressed by any of their cars at all.

Regards

plowboy_lurch said:

About 3-weeks ago in Kansas City, Mo. my 2013 SEL Premium Plat Grey was hit by tennis ball sized hail. I counted about 60 dime to slightly larger than quarter size dents in the fenders, trunk, hood, doors and a busted cap on the driver's side mirror. My insurance adjuster suggested that it is possible that the roof needs replaced but it wasn't included in the original estimate. I went to a Nation Wide auto Body repair shop that uses contract PDR folks and then to an individual owned PDR shop in Kansas City, KS who was recommended by my VW dealer. Both estimated about the same for the PDR, somewhat less than the insurance estimate. Neither mentioned the mirror or roof replacement, however the KC, KS guy pointed out cracked paint at the rear ridge of the roof and at the edge of a particularly large dent. I can't see it but can feel a snag running my finger over it. He said he can repair it with a little sanding and touchup paint. I am sick about this and since I am so particular about my vehicles I want to use the best repair shop I can find. Anyone have any experience with similar repair work in the KC area they can share? I might even consider St. Louis since I have visited Oilhammers shop many times with my 2005 Passat TDI which, by the way, wasn't touched by the storm.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you'd replace the roof on a Passat, as the special welding technique is something that I haven't seen outside of the assembly plant.

plowboy_lurch said:

About 3-weeks ago in Kansas City, Mo. my 2013 SEL Premium Plat Grey was hit by tennis ball sized hail. I counted about 60 dime to slightly larger than quarter size dents in the fenders, trunk, hood, doors and a busted cap on the driver's side mirror. My insurance adjuster suggested that it is possible that the roof needs replaced but it wasn't included in the original estimate. I went to a Nation Wide auto Body repair shop that uses contract PDR folks and then to an individual owned PDR shop in Kansas City, KS who was recommended by my VW dealer. Both estimated about the same for the PDR, somewhat less than the insurance estimate. Neither mentioned the mirror or roof replacement, however the KC, KS guy pointed out cracked paint at the rear ridge of the roof and at the edge of a particularly large dent. I can't see it but can feel a snag running my finger over it. He said he can repair it with a little sanding and touchup paint. I am sick about this and since I am so particular about my vehicles I want to use the best repair shop I can find. Anyone have any experience with similar repair work in the KC area they can share? I might even consider St. Louis since I have visited Oilhammers shop many times with my 2005 Passat TDI which, by the way, wasn't touched by the storm.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you'd replace the roof on a Passat, as the special welding technique is something that I haven't seen outside of the assembly plant.

Well the car has been in the body shop now for a week. I called today to get an update. They tell me it will be done tomorrow.

Cant wait to get out of this Soul. I am barely getting 25MPG and I am at least 90% hwy driving all day. Glad its just a rental. If I had to drive my F150. I would have only got half of that MPG. With a tail wind.

Body shop tells me they had to replace the trunk lid. Is there a good source of body parts here in the states or should I be worried about cheaper replacement part form China? I would think that if the car was manufactured in Tennessee a factory part would be just as cheap.

Besides alignment. Is there anything I should look closely at? I had the rear deck spoiler, but I think that is a glue on?

Thanks for everyones input. Cant wait to get back to a real car.

TDI in the Lou said:

Body shop tells me they had to replace the trunk lid. Is there a good source of body parts here in the states or should I be worried about cheaper replacement part form China? I would think that if the car was manufactured in Tennessee a factory part would be just as cheap.

Click to expand...

Just tell the body shop to use genuine VW replacement parts. I assume the insurance company is footing the bill so cost of parts should not be issue for you.

The spoiler is 3M double-stick tape. Check panel gaps and inspect the roof closely, as that panel can't be replaced (as far as I know).