ugh, no thanks then. I have a jada toys 1/24th rx7 that I think would make the perfect color, it's a yellow with a pearl and when it sits on my bookcase from a distance I hardly notice it, when it hits the light and you look at it a little closer, the pearl really looks awesome. if they do have to repaint/repair the whole thing, I'm going to ask for that color, if it looks anything close to what I picture in my head when it's done, it will look absolutely stunning. I found out on the news that State Farm received over 1600 claims realted to last night, there were baseball sized hail in areas, 80 mph winds, there were trees ripped right out of the ground, road closures, I could tell driving home that something major had went down, but I had no idea of the severity until today, I'm very fortunate all I got was a bunch of bumps in my car as fomr what I've learned, things could have been much worse (I guess that's almost always the case in these kinds of situations though)

Positive spin...
 

Look at it like this. The:

• Hood
• Nose
• Front fenders
• 4 doors
• trunk lid
• rear bumper

are all bolt-on replacements that can (given a really good paint shop) be painted so that they're indistinguishable from new. That leaves only the roof and rear fenders as parts of the exposed unit-body that would have to be 'repaired'. It's not like your car were in an impact that would have structural consequences. It sucks, but you're way better off than an equivalent $$ of damaged caused by a wreck.

Great thought JM1FE. Get an insurance check and get a full body kit. I realize that had you wanted a body kit you probably would have had one already :o But considering the alternative, you might as well trick it out.

I'm actually going to shoot for shaved emblems and keeping it yellow but adding a pearl, I'm not sure if there's enough to try and get a kit or not, but I should be able to come out of it with something, maybe a racing beat front or something :)
I was pretty bummed when it first happened, but really all it is is a car, cars are my passion/hobby/etc, but it's all in how you look at it. After calming down a bit, I realized things could have been a lot worse and it's out of my hands, I just hope the body shop will work with me and it comes out better than before, I'd be happy with stock, but I'd be beyond stoked if I could squeeze some custom work out of it.

wow that is insane!!!!!Looks like your car was stolen by jackass and used at the driving range.... :eek:

I know its hard to believe but youve got a very funny story to tell in the future..... :D

good thing the insurance will take the loss.....hopefully they will fix cause yellow is sweet!!!good luck... :)

Be sure to document the hail damage and repair. Down the road you go to sell the car and folks are going to be scared of it due to have the re-paint work. They may fear it was in a bad crash or something. Some folks will not buy it even though you show the hail pics and repair work orders - they just don't want a re-painted car. I guess that is what "loss of value" claims are all about?

Dennis

Wow, just saw your thread. As a fellow yellow owner I know exactly what you're feeling. I have no idea what I'd do if mine were damaged like that.

I hope all the helpful ideas from the others help you find to a way to keep your Lightning Yellow, though you might want to rename the color. No point dragging up old memories of extreme meteorological events! :(

Yeah, that hail storm on friday was insane. I was out and my roommate gave me a call to see where I was at (I have covered parking at home). I was by the university campus parked in the street. I bolted out of my friend's place and drove my car to the nearest parking garage to hide out. On the way out, there was a tree that fell on top of a ford truck in the street. I was so glad that wasnt my car. By the time that I parked my car, the storm had ended. I think the majority of the hail was in north austin (where I live). Some of my friends reported not seeing any rain in south austin. I was lucky that day.

Just Damn! I think I'm gonna be sick! :(

Holy Cow! :eek: I'm just staring at those pics, slack-jawed. I've been pissy all week because I got a single dent on the fender when something fell off the garage wall. This puts mine into perspective. Best of luck getting it back to new.

Two years ago, I stashed our rental car under my in-laws' tree to avoid hail. The top of the tree fell on the car.

Yea. My RX-8 got devistated in the hail storm too. Looking at pics, my car has the exact same dents all over it. I was at Mikado off 183 and Burnet when it happened. Mine's Titanium Grey Metallic. Let me know what you end up doing w/ it (like what shop you take it to). Have you heard back from insurance yet? I have State Farm and I'm still waiting to hear back.

Natty

I took mine to Roger Beasley's body shop on metric, apparently State Farm has some sort of "catastrophe team" they are going to use due to the insanely high number of claims etc.., the body shop had porsches and stuff in the parking lot so that made me feel a little better. I have not heard anything yet either.

That is what they did when mine car got hailed on. So many claims they brought in a team from outside and got everyone processed fast. Normally now when you have a claim you take the car to your favorite body shop and the insurance pays directly. With the "team" they were handing out checks on the spot - along with the assurance that if the repairs cost more they would work with the body shop on getting it right.

Dennis

awesome, Thanks for the info!

Yea, I just talked to insurance on the phone and they gave me the option of taking it to some place State Farm has set up specifically for this hail storm, or I could just take it to a shop of my choice that's certified to do their own estimates by state farm. I'm wondering if one would pay more than the other. I'm thinking that maybe I can order some of the easer to replace parts myself and have a paintless dent repair do my room and rear quarter panels if possible. I'm hoping to have enough money after this to buy the lip kit for my car.

My SF hail check was a LOT more than it cost to have a paintless dent place fix the car. Of course, YMMV on that. If your car can be replaced w/o painting and replacing panels then it should be cheaper too and you should probably get the check. Otherwise, you can just take it to a good body shop and get it fixed right.

Dennis

I'll be happy just coming out with car looking normal again, right now it looks like a rolling golf ball, I haven't heard anything yet but mine is also at a "state farm approved" or whatever shop so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I just took my car by Austin Body Works to get an Estimate. They quoted me $9,500 to fix it. That includes replacing the hood, trunk, roof, both front fenders, passenger rear quarter panel, both passenger side doors, and a bunch of trim and molding too. They're certified by State Farm, so I will probably be picking a check up for $9,500. Maybe I can have a paintless dent repair place do it for a lot less and then get some goodies for my car. We'll see.

wow, mine came out to 8,000something, I guess one of my doors didn't need replacing so I didn't quite make it to 9,000, I'll be talking to the shop first thing tomorrow as I'm hoping they haven't started working on it yet.

have you already gotten your check? I don't go to get mine until Monday when I have an appointment at the State Farm place. Apparently I'm supposed to give them my estimate from the shop and they'll just verify everything and then cut me a check. What shop are you going to use? Maybe I'll go check them out too. Let me know what they decide.

no check yet, I'm using Roger Beasley's body shop on Metric, I'm going to call them this morning to find out what the next steps are, the guy I spoke with from State Farm called me while I was on my way home on my cell so it was kinda' hard to take in everything while being stuck in traffic etc.., plus it was a little overwhelming considering I will be paying for 2 different deductibles (car was already scheduled to go in for something else before everything happened on Friday)

Spoke to the body shop this morning and it looks like I will get shaved emblems out of the whole deal (for extra $$ out of my pocket), but he said they might not go for adding any pearl as it is a 3 stage process etc.., I should know something by today hopefully :)

Take lemons and make lemonade. Did something similar with my Vette after I was t-boned a couple yrs back. Ended up getting the whole car repainted with sweet 2-tone racing stripes. The car looked 1000% better than before the accident.

That's the plan, from talking to some of my car-guy friends here at work they were saying almost any body shop should throw a pearl in for free as it's not that big a deal (it's like adding a layer of paint) and they make a killing off the insurance anway etc etc.., still waiting on homedude to call me back, hope it can all be done :)

spoke to the bodyshop, to add a pearl would have cost 1400.00 bucks (on top of the 750.00 deductible) so I scratched that idea, the guy mentioned it would have made my car a greenish color anyway, plus the jambs would have been unpainted further adding to the "I just paid a ton of oney and now my car looks like ass" factor. I am getting the emblems shaved with a fresh coat of lightning yellow, car should come out looking sick as anything, but I will not get it back until May 10th. (big time ouch!) I guess I can still show up at the meet in April with my rental (bummer)