[Silver_DodgeRam]

I work about 15 miles out of town. On my drive home last night, I got caught up in a hail storm of about 1" to 1.5" diameter. It is just wide open country out there, so no place to pull over for cover, not even a single tree along the side of the road.

Hood, roof, and the top edges of the doors, front quarter panels, and bed sides are all pretty beat up. Even lost a lense on one of my fog lights. I'll post some pics later tonight or tomorrow when I get a chance.

Luckily, I should be covered for this, unless the insurance company decides to total it. I guess if they do, I will probably buy another 2nd gen Ram (manual transmission this time), and swap all my goodies into it.

This sucks though.

 

[BBHemipower]

that sucks man... no where to stop? man, i bet you were p$$ed off

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

that sucks man... no where to stop? man, i bet you were p$$ed off

Stopping was easy, just no cover anywhere.
Ya, I even called home from my cell phone while it was going on. No one was home, but I left a tirade of cuss words on the answering machine. My wife told me she listened to it and all she could here was the hail hitting metal, and a few cuss words in between.

 

[BBHemipower]

have you found out if insurance is going to help you...I have no idea if they do...
Good luck man...

 

[23795]

That sucks man, if they total it you have to buy it back from the insurance company. Or you could just strip off every part possible before they take it... that gets risky though, I've been through it..

[Redacted]

Good luck, maybe a new Ram on the way???

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

I am still waiting for the udjuster to call me to schedule a time to come look at it. If it is not too bad, they will cover it, otherwise they will total it. I hope they don't total it, but I have seen cars with hail damage not much worse then mine get totaled.

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

If they have to replace my hood because of the hail damage, I should pitch in the extra and get one of these. This is the coolest aftermarket hood for the Dodge ram in my opinion, plus it is functional. My wife would hate it though. She doesn't appreciate the old Mopar muscle car style.

 

[seth505]

wow, sorry to hear that bad luck man. Best of luck getting it taken care of by insurance. That hood is awesome, is 'stylin concepts who makes it?

Speakin of bad luck I have friends who just moved out to CA and one of them has a truck like mine and an 04 yamaha r1. In the first 3 weeks someone smashed his window and took his stereo then the next week his bike was stolen

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

I tried and tried to get a good picture of the hail damage. I think if the paint were a darker shade, you could see the dimples better. This is the best pic I got. As you can see, they are not real deep dimples, but there are many. Roof is the same way, as are the top edges of the front quarter panels. Still waiting on the insurance adjuster. I took it to a body shop, and they said that it should be no problem to fix, and that it would be unlikely the insurance would total it. I hope so.

 

[Ramsportrocks]

happened to a friend of mine in his trans am about
10 years ago, insurance gave him like 2k for the damage
and he just dumped the money on the loan, just about
paid it off.
he said it sucked but he could live with the dimples
since it was a great conversation starter

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

Met with the adjuster and the body shop this morning. Total estimate is $4890. I'll just have to pay my deductible ($250).

They will replace the hood, and do paintless dent repair on the sides. They said the roof on Dodge Rams (and Chevy's) are double layer for added strength. There are only three ways to repair hail damage when you have a double layer roof. One is with body filler and paint, which no one does anymore. The second is to, from the interior with the headliner removed, drill big holes in the bottom layer so you can gain access the the underside of the top layer to bang the dents up. Insurance won't authorize this because they say it weekens the structural integity of the roof. Last method, is to remove all the glass and split all the factory roof seams so the top layer of the roof can be peeled back. Then they weld in a whole new roof top layer. Apparently, this is the recommended method, and the only one insurance will pay for.

I don't really like the sound of this last method. Since the pickup sits high enough that I can't see the roof anyway, I may just leave the roof as is, and take the money (about $1750 for the roof). Only problem with that is if I ever have any additional damage to the roof, the insurance company will take that $1750 off the top of whatever they would pay for the new damage.

 

[MSCH2112]

hmmm....heck i would take the 1750 and pocket that. i've done that before with a claim, and insurance company didn't have a problem. they just wouldn't cover any future damage in that area. 1750.....hey, that just paid for those gears you had installed! you really can't see much on the roof anyway.

mike

 

[Silver_DodgeRam]

hmmm....heck i would take the 1750 and pocket that. i've done that before with a claim, and insurance company didn't have a problem. they just wouldn't cover any future damage in that area. 1750.....hey, that just paid for those gears you had installed! you really can't see much on the roof anyway.
mike

Yup, I think that is what I am going to do. The only part of the roof that is visible from the ground is the part just above the windshield. The rest is out of sight. I think i'll take the money, and take my chances that nothing else will happen to the roof in the future. Get the rest fixed, and it should look pretty good again. One of these days, I am going to stop caring, and will let rocks and trees do their worst up in the mountains. But for now, i like it to look nice, no dents or scratches.