farsouth

Just had car battered by hail stones , insurance and experts being obstructive
,so far the expert has failed to account for all damage given low estimate for repair (filling most dents)categorizes vehicle before damage as normal condition , I guess this gives them reason to do a cheap repair rather than replace panels. The car is only 14 months old and was in perfect condition.
Has anybody got some experience of this process and pit falls to watch out for, thanks:

G-J-B

Ouch. Do the insurance company's still consider that an "act of god"?!
Hope someone can help you out.

cyrian

There is a process for repairing "dings" like hailstones that doesn't need filling or new panels.
I have a friend who was MD of a car manufacturer and he had 2000+ cars damaged by hail and used this method.
Suggest you search pages jaunes or google for a mobile dent repairer and get a price.

Regards

C

cyrian

No idea what to search for in France but I googled "car body repairs" in the UK and found this site for info.
http://www.chipsawayuk.com/
You will find other sites thro Google and some of these may have franchises in France.

Good luck

C

dmu

Touch wood, we've never had this problem.
Google (France) "débosselage grêle" for the various sites, and look for "carrosserie" in the Pages Jaunes, entering your town or area. A local garage might use this method.
Re the Act of God, you'd have to ask your insurance whether it covers "catastrophes naturelles".
Hope this helps!

Ka Ora!

What you need is a Carrosserie that can vacuum pull dents if there are any of them, Then its a case of fine filling and touching up the body work. If you live in a storm prone area Get a Covered parking space. As large hail stones are the norm. But you normally have to have the top end policy to be covered for hail damage. And because no other cars were involved your excess comes in to play probably 500 to 700 euros out of your pocket.

Panel replacement is only done in the case of severely damaged units, A plastic wing that comes pre undercoated cost around 300 euros metal ones are more expensive filling and re-spraying a total panel costs 150 euros not including vat which the insurance company dont pay.



The insurance company is not obliged to give you back the car as new and you dont get a say in the process manner and location of repair.

Its all in the conditions of the contract that one of you signed.

farsouth

Thanks for the advice guys , have a top end policy ,have a garage but got hit on way home , and the excess is 640 euros. Would have thought the car must be repaired to previous condition ,but got worried when I read the experts description of condition was "normal" . I've seen cars P38 fillered doesn't loog good after a year or so.

Ka Ora!

How a car looks after a year is going to depend on the skill of the craftsmen involved. "Previous Condition" That is a pretty ambiguous statement as you dont have a say in how they get there, If all the dents holes chips get filled and the resulting spay job produces a pucker finish then its a job well done.

If there holes dents in the roof then it has to bee filled or if possible vacuum pulled if the metal has not stretched to much. You cant just replace a roof panel as it is in just about most models (Excluding soft tops) a structural element of the car.

70 percent of accident damage cars end up with some filler on them, And a lot of brand new panels are sprayed with an undercoating filler to take out imperfections in the pressing process. P38 in not the only filler in use on cars. Have a bit more faith in another professionals ability. As one bad filler job out of thousands done every year doe not make it a bad repair method.

chuba

We had our car damaged by massive hail stones in Spain a few years ago, we had to go to the police so that they would declare it officially a natural disaster.

Our insurance in France covered all the costs due for repairs as the car was very badly damaged, big dents, holes, allover the body work, no glass broken thank god as we had to drive back to france with the car in that state.

So just to inform you that the french insurance companies do cover this fully.

analyst

"and for your penance say 3 Hail Maries"

hey, I'm really getting to grips with this French . . . don't you think?