Hail-dented roofs, hoods, and trunk lids brought back to their factory contour, with the comprehensive insurance claim handled for you, for drivers throughout the Puget Sound.
A hailstorm does not damage a vehicle the way a collision does. Instead of one impact concentrated in one place, hail leaves dozens or hundreds of small, round, shallow dents across the horizontal surfaces that took the hits: the roof, the hood, the trunk lid, and the upper edges of the fenders and doors.
Individually the dents are minor. Collectively they are what makes a car look written off from ten feet away, and they are why a hail estimate reads as pages of small line items rather than one panel replacement.
That damage profile is what makes hail such a good candidate for paintless dent repair. In most hailstorms the stones dent the metal without breaking the paint, so the finish is intact and the panel simply needs to be worked back to shape from behind.
When that is the case there is no filling, no sanding, no primer, and no repaint. It is faster, it costs your insurer less, and it leaves your original factory paint on the car.
Where a hailstone has actually chipped or cracked the finish, that particular panel needs conventional body repair and refinishing instead. A real estimate will treat the two categories separately rather than lumping them together.
Western Washington does not get the annual catastrophic hail that the Plains states do, which is exactly why hail damage here is so often misjudged.
Local storms tend to be smaller and more scattered. A driver notices a dimpled hood weeks later and assumes it is too minor to claim, or gets one look from a shop that does not do volume dent work and is told the roof needs replacing.
Both outcomes cost money that a proper inspection would have saved.
Every panel is inspected under angled light, which is the only way shallow hail dents show up reliably. We count and locate each dent, panel by panel, because that count is what the estimate is built from.
Dents with intact paint go to paintless dent repair. Anywhere a hailstone chipped or cracked the finish is flagged for conventional repair and refinishing, and priced separately.
We submit the documented estimate to your insurer as a comprehensive claim, deal with the adjuster directly, and handle any supplement if more damage appears once work starts.
Technicians access the backside of each panel and lift the metal back to its factory contour with rods, picks, and glue-pulling tabs, working one dent at a time across the panel.
Panels with broken paint are repaired and refinished in a controlled booth with computerized color matching, so a repainted section is not visible against the untouched panels beside it.
Every repaired panel is re-checked under specialized lighting for a smooth, factory-correct surface before the vehicle goes back to you, along with the documentation of what was done.
This is the single most useful thing to understand about a hail claim, and the part most drivers get wrong. Hail is weather damage, so it falls under the comprehensive portion of your policy rather than collision. That distinction matters in two practical ways: comprehensive deductibles are frequently lower than collision deductibles, and a comprehensive claim is a no-fault loss, so there is no other driver, no liability determination, and no at-fault finding attached to it.
What you pay is your comprehensive deductible. What your insurer pays is the rest of the documented repair. We bill your insurance company directly and handle the adjuster correspondence, including any supplement needed if additional damage surfaces once panels are being worked. Washington state law also gives you the right to choose which shop performs the repair, regardless of which shops your insurer suggests, and that applies to a hail claim exactly as it does to a collision. Our Insurance page walks through the claims process in more detail.
Your declarations page lists comprehensive and collision deductibles separately. On light hail damage it is worth knowing the number before you file, and we will give you a written estimate you can compare it against at no cost.
Pop-up hail repair outfits appear after a storm, work from parking lots, and are gone before any warranty could be claimed. We are a fixed local facility, so we are still here if a repair needs revisiting.
Because most hail dents leave the finish intact, the repair happens from behind the panel and the original paint is never cut or resprayed. There is no color match to get wrong and no repaint to disclose at resale. See our paintless dent repair page for how the technique works.
Hail repairs carry the same limited lifetime warranty on workmanship as any other repair we complete, covering paint adhesion, panel fit, and the quality of the work we performed. Because our Port Orchard shop is a CARSTAR location, repairs completed there also carry CARSTAR's Limited Five-Year Nationwide Warranty, honored at CARSTAR locations across the USA and Canada. Our warranty page sets out exactly what is covered.
Hail is almost always covered under the comprehensive portion of your auto policy, not collision, which means you pay your comprehensive deductible and no more. Comprehensive claims are also no-fault, so a hail claim does not involve another driver and is treated differently from an at-fault accident. Check your declarations page for your comprehensive deductible, or call us and we will help you read it.
Hail is a no-fault comprehensive loss, so it is treated very differently from an at-fault collision. Rate impact varies by carrier and by your claims history, and we cannot promise what your insurer will do. Your agent can tell you exactly how a comprehensive claim affects your policy before you decide to file.
Light hail damage confined to one or two panels is often finished in two to four days. A vehicle dented across the roof, hood, and trunk lid typically takes one to two weeks, because every dent is worked individually. Panels that need conventional repair and refinishing add time for paint and cure. We give you a specific timeframe once the vehicle has been inspected under proper lighting.
Usually yes. Hail typically leaves shallow, round dents that have not broken the paint, which is the ideal case for paintless dent repair. The metal is worked back to its factory contour from behind the panel, so the original finish is never sanded or resprayed and there is no color match to worry about. Where a hailstone has chipped or cracked the paint, that panel needs conventional repair and refinishing instead.
There is no safety urgency to an undented roof panel, but two things get worse with time. Any hailstone that chipped the paint exposes bare metal, and in the wet Puget Sound climate that starts corroding. Insurers also apply time limits for reporting a claim, so waiting can cost you the coverage. Get it documented and estimated even if you choose to schedule the repair later.
Be careful with pop-up storm-chasing operations. They work out of parking lots, often leave the area within weeks, and any warranty they offer is worth nothing once they are gone. Washington state law gives you the right to choose your own repair shop, and a fixed local facility is still there if something needs correcting a year later.
Unrepaired hail damage does, noticeably, because a dented roof and hood are the first things a buyer or appraiser sees. Properly repaired hail damage generally does not, and paintless dent repair helps here specifically because your factory paint is never touched, so there is no repaint to disclose and no panel that no longer matches.
Yes. Hail damage in particular is hard to judge from photographs, because shallow dents only show up clearly under angled light, so an in-person look is worth it. Send us photos to start the conversation and we will follow up with a written estimate you can take to your insurer.
