Yesterday we had a hail storm in Ottawa, Canada. My Rogue had damage as well as hundreds of cars. I am so upset. I used to park to the fartest part of the parking lot just to prevent an idiot to cause a dent on my car, right now there are at least 20 dents, including the A pillar...tomorrow I will take the car to the body shop, we will see what they can do. Anybody have an experience like this? What ahould I expect? can they fix it?

i dont have pics to go off of, but usually its gonna be a PDR (paintless dent repair). where they spend time pushing out each & every dent. big $$$$

I'm about to move out for college next week and I won't have a garage anymore, is there any type of hail cover? I've done research a month ago and there just proto types now.

It looks like you have a 2011 Rogue so I assume you have comprehensive coverage through your insurance. This is also assuming that Canada has similiar insurance regulations as the US...I am guessing you are required to have insurance and I am guessing since it is a newer vehicle that you have comp and collision in addition to liability coverage.

If this is the case it is a simple comprehensive claim. Comprehensive coverage kicks in for acts of nature (hail, flood, tornado, etc....), theft or vandalism and would be subject to whatever deductible you chose.

So the big question is, do you have comprehensive insurance coverage? If so, all you have to worry about is the deductible.

I just turned 18, that makes my premiums high, so we had a high deductible. I think it was either $500 or $1000 for the deductible. That's why I'm worried.

I will pay $300 deductable and they will fix it. My concern is the A pillars and other Structural areas. Roof and hood should be easy, but the curved edges...I will take pictures and update you. I hope none of the forum members experience something like this, but if they do they will have an idea about the procedure, cost, result...

My only relief is at least 500 cars in my neighbourhood is like the dark side of the moon :0(

Qashqai wrote:I will pay $300 deductable and they will fix it. My concern is the A pillars and other Structural areas. Roof and hood should be easy, but the curved edges...I will take pictures and update you. I hope none of the forum members experience something like this, but if they do they will have an idea about the procedure, cost, result...

My only relief is at least 500 cars in my neighbourhood is like the dark side of the moon :0(

They will return you car to the condition it was prior to the hail storm so I wouldn't worry about any of the dents, PDR isn't the only option available and I really wouldn't be concerned with there being any consequences to the structural integrity of your car.

PDR is really high tech. they use light and black/white lined cards to make sure the dent is removed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb0nez42B0[/youtube]

The cost of the repair is $6000. They will PDR the hood, doors, A pillar. But my biggest concern is the roof. There are at least 200 dents and they decided to CHANGE THE ROOF PANEL. They will remove the roof rails, open the spot welds, remove the sunroof and roof carpet and replace the roof body panel. Right now the rooof panel is in back order, it will be in Canada maybe in months.

I am worried about changing the roof panel. Can they do a good job? can they attach the panel and spot weld it properly? will it leak proof like the original? what about the sun roof? can they attach it back preciseley? a sun roof is a sensitive mechanism, will it water proof? the carpet and interior trims may be abused, scratched as well...Do you think I should leave the roof as-is?

Changing the roof panel scares me a lot. The car is only 20000km and 18 months old and front bumper rear bumper changed already...and now the roof.

When I sell the car, is hail damage on the roof decrease the value?

Qashqai wrote:The cost of the repair is $6000. They will PDR the hood, doors, A pillar. But my biggest concern is the roof. There are at least 200 dents and they decided to CHANGE THE ROOF PANEL. They will remove the roof rails, open the spot welds, remove the sunroof and roof carpet and replace the roof body panel. Right now the rooof panel is in back order, it will be in Canada maybe in months.

I am worried about changing the roof panel. Can they do a good job? can they attach the panel and spot weld it properly? will it leak proof like the original? what about the sun roof? can they attach it back preciseley? a sun roof is a sensitive mechanism, will it water proof? the carpet and interior trims may be abused, scratched as well...Do you think I should leave the roof as-is?

Changing the roof panel scares me a lot. The car is only 20000km and 18 months old and front bumper rear bumper changed already...and now the roof.

When I sell the car, is hail damage on the roof decrease the value?

hold on, while i lift my bottom jaw off the floor.....

OH.. MY.. GOD. i knew it was gonna be big money, but 6grand!? jesus.
ok can you post the pic of the roof? sometimes its best to take that cash from insurance, put it in your pocket and leave the damage as is.

will things leak? will things be welded as original? no one knows the quality of their work. it could end up being BETTER even, or worse. no one knows.i know that spot welding and applying some water proof beading is very easy. i also know that once things are "fixed" there is only one way to really know = test it.

think of what im going to be doing soon enough: apply a gloss black vinyl overlay on my roof to give it that nissan maxima glass roof look.
maybe its in your best interest to try that to try and "hide" the dents?

Qashqai wrote:The cost of the repair is $6000. They will PDR the hood, doors, A pillar. But my biggest concern is the roof. There are at least 200 dents and they decided to CHANGE THE ROOF PANEL. They will remove the roof rails, open the spot welds, remove the sunroof and roof carpet and replace the roof body panel. Right now the rooof panel is in back order, it will be in Canada maybe in months.

I am worried about changing the roof panel. Can they do a good job? can they attach the panel and spot weld it properly? will it leak proof like the original? what about the sun roof? can they attach it back preciseley? a sun roof is a sensitive mechanism, will it water proof? the carpet and interior trims may be abused, scratched as well...Do you think I should leave the roof as-is?

Changing the roof panel scares me a lot. The car is only 20000km and 18 months old and front bumper rear bumper changed already...and now the roof.

When I sell the car, is hail damage on the roof decrease the value?

The general answer to your question is that a good technician can most definately do a good job of this, a poor shop with poor quality standards and poor techs could mess it up. It's like any job, the person performing the work could do a good job, or they could do a bad job, that's why it's so important to build a relationship with your shop, or in this case get some references/referrals if possible to make sure they have a reputation for quality of work. That is the only thing you can do.

And really because insurance is involved what choice do you have? I honestly think in situations like this it's better to know as little as possible about what is going on. You are the one ordering the work, the insurance adjuster is handling it and paying for it so I'd recommend just sitting back and letting the repairs go forward and don't worry because I don't think you have many options, other than possibly pocketing the money and just living with the damage but then you'll be stuck driving a beat up car for a decade or more without the option to sell, probably not a good long term plan.

And regarding future sale or trade-in, yes this will make it more difficult to sell and you'll get less trade-in value potentially becuase your title will say "repaired", and the carfax will show the details of the repair work no question about that, its just a fact of life. There have been some big pushes to change the laws in Canada where insurance companies have to compensate owners for these future losses of the value of the vehicle, but at this point you're just out of luck.

Not much you can do here, getting all wound up and worrying isn't going to solve anything, just relax and let the shop do their work, if you notice issues afterwards let them know and insist they correct it.

Qashqai wrote:I am worried about changing the roof panel. Can they do a good job? can they attach the panel and spot weld it properly? will it leak proof like the original? what about the sun roof? can they attach it back preciseley? a sun roof is a sensitive mechanism, will it water proof? the carpet and interior trims may be abused, scratched as well...Do you think I should leave the roof as-is?

Regardless of what you do (take the payout or change the roof) you will have a claim against your vehicle that some buyers may hold against you. That said, if the hail damage was widespread in your area many cars they look at would have a claim on their record for that incident.

A qualified repair shop is able to return your car to factory condition. If they do not they will be forced to redo the work by the insurance company until it is done right, which means it is in their best interests to do it properly the first time. You aren't having some sort of magical one-off procedure done, replacing a welded-on panel on a car (whether it be the roof, quarter panel, etc.) is common practice.

You will also want to discuss the warranty behind the work being performed, some insurance companies offer a lifetime warranty against defects provided it is fixed at a "preferred shop". This should alleviate your concerns of rust down the road, sunroof not closing, etc. later on.


The concern about scratched trim and such in my mind is the only wildcard. I have no doubt that there are shops which do not take the same care and attention to the work. I would discuss this with your insurance company if you are concerned and take pictures of the car when you drop it off.

Qashqai wrote:Yesterday we had a hail storm in Ottawa, Canada. My Rogue had damage as well as hundreds of cars. I am so upset. I used to park to the fartest part of the parking lot just to prevent an idiot to cause a dent on my car, right now there are at least 20 dents, including the A pillar...tomorrow I will take the car to the body shop, we will see what they can do. Anybody have an experience like this? What ahould I expect? can they fix it?

We had $3K in hail damage to our '09 Murano, nearly 60 dents. The entire vehicle was done with PDR and I swear, you could not tell the difference between the vehicle before the hail and after, it was truly amazing. I am very picky about my cars and really was sweating this whole thing. It did not hit my Carfax, even a year later and I recently sold the vehicle for full KBB private party asking price, no issues. There was not painting necessary, so paint meters dont pick up on the work, should not impact trade in value unless some painting is necessary.

the only reason i asked to see the pics, and possibly re-think doing it; is because sometimes its better to leave the damage.

say a scratch on a fender, or a couple door dings; or a small bumper to bumper accident, than to have a blemish on your carfax as "repainted" accident damage repair. the "repainted" & repaired sounds horrible and often steers future buyers away, while a couple dings & dents or scrapes wont.
-just something to think about.

personally me, when i buy used cars (and i do) if i see repaint/repair; i keep searching. because you rarely will ever know the extent, quality of paints, process, etc. its a whole mess. was the frame damaged? etc. while if i see the damage as minor - that wouldnt dismiss the car in my eyes.

The way to handle that here in the states is to make sure the insurance company is including compensation for what is called "depreciated value"....meaning if the car is worth less BECAUSE of the repair they should include compensation for that. Insurance is meant to bring you back to the level you were before the loss....no more and no less.

Again, I have to assume it is similiar in Canada....can't say for sure though. It wouldn't hurt to ask your insurance rep, that's for sure.

Black B15 wrote:The way to handle that here in the states is to make sure the insurance company is including compensation for what is called "depreciated value"....meaning if the car is worth less BECAUSE of the repair they should include compensation for that. Insurance is meant to bring you back to the level you were before the loss....no more and no less.

Again, I have to assume it is similiar in Canada....can't say for sure though. It wouldn't hurt to ask your insurance rep, that's for sure.

great point. Sqash, take a read to b15's post.

Thank you all for your replies...

Actually I have no idea what to do. Last night I saw a nightmare (I am serious): Two grease monkeys were tearing apart the trim of the hatch to unplug the wire harness, remove the hatch from the hinges and braking the spot welds with a flat-head screwdriver. I saw them!!!!

I actually don't worry too much about the value of the car, because I am planning to use it for at least 10 years. After ten years, a ten year old Rogue )probably 7.000-8.000 $) will have a loss of 500 dollars while negotiating due to couple of dings. and I do believe what ImStricken said: a changed or painted roof panel will scare people, naturally...My concern is I prefer to drive a car with some dents (mother nature's gift) rather than a broken roof liner, scratched trims, leaking sun roof or rusted welds (idiot technician's mars). In Japan, in the Nissan factory, robots are welding the parts and they soak it to a galvanize bath, right? they can't do it properly. I saw how they (tried to) changed my rear bumper!

Here is my plan:

1.I will ask them not to change the roof panel
2. I will ask them to PDR the front passenger side door and the hood.
3. With vacuum or suction, fix the dents on the edges, A pillar, etc.

here are my questions to fellow forum members:

If you were in my shoes:

- would you ask them to change the roof drip moldings (the black strip that covers the joint of the edge and roof panel, under the roof racks)? there are black pieces under the roof rack. My concern is, I don't want them to touch to the bolts that hold the rail.
- would you ask them to vacuum only the major dents on the roof which are just 3 or 4. I can live with minor bumps and dents...

Here is the video of the damage on the roof:http://youtu.be/VpRBeZBH5Ww

and some pictures: I tried to do my best, but it is difficult to take the picture of the damage on a gray car:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60569238@N ... 012/08/03/

Sqash i wanna start off by saying, I LOVE YOUR CAMERA SETUP! that looks awesome man. im certainly thinking of doing something similar.

anyway, i gotta be honest with you - id leave the roof as it is. you are 100% right, that the car was built in a clean environment by robots, with spotless sheet metal, under strict measurements. if i was a buyer of a used car and noticed those tiny dents, id much rather see that, then a carfax that has the major repairs on it. because who knows why that happened? the seller is telling you "hail" but in reality, it could have been a freakin piano dropped from the 3rd story of a high-rise lol/jk.

the roof damage, is almost unnoticeable. i wouldn't even think twice, and leave that. messing with a sunroof, can be tricky business. iv seen plenty leak of my time, even factory installed ones. plus - if it does leak, im almost sure it will not be covered under original warranty of your car. honestly, from the video's i saw - the damage is so miniscule, its not even noticeable if you didnt know it was there.

Question: how much would you end up saving, and putting into your pocket if they not do the roof? i would just wrap it in shiny black vinyl and call it a day.

would you ask them to change the roof drip moldings - not unless they had to remove them for some reason. im really big on "if its not broken, dont fix it". they could end up replacing it with molding that wasnt made right by nissan, and you got a leak. they could replace it and mess it up, and your leaking.
be lucky you dont have this:

Thank you ImStricken. I started a new topic for that camera setup. I was planning to share this idea with the forum but I was so lazy to take the pictures, upload them, etc (by the way for some reason I can't attach pictures from flickr)

Anyway. Thank you for your advice. You are right, I can live with these minor dents. I was just parking to the farthest corner of the parking lot to protect my Frozen Treat Wagon from idiots opening their doors... but now see what happened!

I will just ask them to PDR the passenger front door and the hood. If they can, they may vacuum (not PDR) the few major dents on the a pillars and the roof.

You should see the cars in Ottawa. Most of the cars are dented. I know it is bad but when I see other cars dented I feel better!

same here. every car is all marked up with "battle scars". i gave up trying. just roll with the punches and thank god no smashed windows or worse.
i had a guy at work bash my maxima rear bumper about a year ago while he was backing up his van. he paid me $450 for the damage. i heated it up, popped it out, and pocketed the $450 and rolled around with the paint damage. the paint was chipped and missing so not like i could buff it out. oh well lol - my luck if i repainted it, it would get destroyed by parking in new york city. so i figured id take the money and throw it into my pocket. after a few weeks, i hardly cared nor noticed it.

LOLOL - you said "frozen treat wagon" lmfao - that actually made me laugh, cuz i looked at your avatar lol - i swear makes me giggle every time.

ImStricken wrote: LOLOL - you said "frozen treat wagon" lmfao - that actually made me laugh, cuz i looked at your avatar lol - i swear makes me giggle every time.

you know after many many years, when someone reads these posts to restore his antique Rogue, he won't understand where this Frozen Treat Wagon came from

On our Murano, I changed the roof mouldings myself after the whole vehicle was PDR'd, it was a piece of cake. You can order the parts online and save yourself a bundle. You can loosen up your roof rack and it will raise up about a half an inch. The mouldings slide under them and then clip down to the roof. Then you tighten up the rack. It will make a difference, especially if you decide not to have the roof replaced.

Last week I took the car to the body shop (next to my Nissan service). They hired a team of hail experts. They took the car inside the shop and let me go inside and see the estimate procedure as well. they laughed at me when I said the other body shop intended to change the roof panel. they said the dents are minor, so PDR will be fine. Right now I am waiting for the estimate. Since I already have the insurance approved estimate, they will pull the price down to that estimate. I am feeling better now. I know they are experts only on fixing the hail dents. However I still have concerns about the interior trims and roof liner. I showed the inside to the owner of the body shop and it ask him to note down that interior has no scratches or finger marks, just looks like brand new. I said if after the PDR process I find any creases or scratches, I will ask them to change that part...

Qashqai wrote:Last week I took the car to the body shop (next to my Nissan service). They hired a team of hail experts. They took the car inside the shop and let me go inside and see the estimate procedure as well. they laughed at me when I said the other body shop intended to change the roof panel. they said the dents are minor, so PDR will be fine. Right now I am waiting for the estimate. Since I already have the insurance approved estimate, they will pull the price down to that estimate. I am feeling better now. I know they are experts only on fixing the hail dents. However I still have concerns about the interior trims and roof liner. I showed the inside to the owner of the body shop and it ask him to note down that interior has no scratches or finger marks, just looks like brand new. I said if after the PDR process I find any creases or scratches, I will ask them to change that part...

hey thats great! glad the team isnt looking to "fast forward" the process by replacing panels. PDR is really 'magic' work. its like it never happened. always wanted to learn it, but dont have the patience lol.

Hey Qashqai what ended up happening? Did they get all the dents out? Do you have an before/after pics?

Hope it all worked out for you.

darylzero wrote:Hey Qashqai what ended up happening? Did they get all the dents out? Do you have an before/after pics?

Hope it all worked out for you.

Hi Darylzero,

I am still waiting for my appointment, which is next week. There are hundreds of damaged cars here, it takes a lot of time to fix them. I am not in a hurry, becasue the dents are just cosmetic...and it is better for me since they "practice" on other cars

I will send pictures for the "after", you can find the "before" pictures on my previous posts.

Yesterday I left my Rogue to the body shop. Probably right now two grease monkey are tearing apart the roof liner and other trims...

I rented a pistachio green Ford Fiesta (just for fun). After half an hour of driving, I heard a strange high pitched noise from the brakes. I am pretty sure the brake pads were finished. I open the hood and check the brake fluid. It was FINISHED. I never saw something before. I mean I saw cars in bad shape, but the car was just at 30.000 km. Anyway, I returned back the car and swap it with a Kia Rio. I don't want to talk about that car. I refuse to comment about that car. All I can say is we are lucky to own a Rogue!

By the way, I removed my Hood Deflector before taking it to the body shop. I realized that the three plastic clips at the front lip of the hood BADLY scratched the paint. I will post pictures next week. But if some of you are thinking of installing one, put a plastic tape before installing that thingie.

FORD: Fix Or Repair Damage.
DROF: Driver Returned On Foot

lol

Qashqai wrote: By the way, I removed my Hood Deflector before taking it to the body shop. I realized that the three plastic clips at the front lip of the hood BADLY scratched the paint. I will post pictures next week. But if some of you are thinking of installing one, put a plastic tape before installing that thingie.

This is so true, it happend to me as well. I used the tape they supplied and still have the impression in my paint from the metal. I would think you probably need some kind of Rubber grommet to protect the paint. I wont be putting it back on and will probably list it on ebay. Besides, i think with all the changes im making, its ending up looking better without it.

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