Hail damge repair on 1985 300SD W126 body
 

I am looking at a purchasing well maintained 1985 300SD . Unfortunately between the time looked at it and when I went to purchase it there was storm ( truly "golf ball sized hail" )and it had significant hail damage 40-50 spots ( mostly trunk lid, hood and some on the roof). With that much damage, I am wondering what to do - will Paintless Dent Removal PDR work on this car, or will it be traditional bodywork (uh oh bondo ) and repaint .

BTW - The seller is unlikely to lower the price much .

Anyone here familiar with with repairig hail damage ? Any DIY possibilities ? -

Thanks

( I am in north metro Atlanta )

..........only if someone is foolish enough to buy it at the original price.........;)

They were selling for a very low price to start with . I suspect that they are only willing to take off a few hundred $ at most .

That's quite a bit of damage, the value should drop exponentially.

Don't be afraid to walk away.

PDR can work some miracles. It will be cheaper than the traditional method, but you need to check first.

I would immediately walk away but this car has a great interior and is very tight mechanically . I will have it looked at by both PDR people and a body shop in the couple of days . The color is metallic silver . There is no paint cracking like that I have seen on many of these but the clear coat around the sunroof is starting to go . Is it possible to get an acceptable ( $1000-1,500 paint job for this car ? .

Thanks

If you do all the prep work and all the chrome removal and all the taping.........and all they do is shoot it..........yes you can.

Violent
 

AGREEMENT.... :D

I have been at a tech session where they removed golf ball size hail damage from three vehicles. :thumbsup:

It is much cheaper. :D

It sounds to me like it would be a considerable expense to have that many dings removed by ANY method. I got an estimate on one of my cars from a PDR guy. It was several hundred dollars for four or five little door dings. Can't imagine what dozens of hail dents would cost.

Walk Now
 

Even with the PDR the metal will still be "wavy" and you will see it and be stuck with it forever unless you want to replace some panels. PDR is a great service to remove dents from a car but its not perfect and in certain lighting conditions you can see the very subtle wavy sheetmetal. Its physically impossible to bring the surface exactly back to the way it was because of stretching of the metal. They can do some magic and it will look great but that's something to keep in mind that its never going to be the way it was.

Walk away. Even in perfect shape these cars are not in high demand. Give the seller your name and number and provide a fair price and explain why you think the price is fair. It will sit for a while and eventually he will come around and call you up. Even in good mechanical condition the value on these cars are so low and repairs are dirt cheap so you can easily invest some money into one and have the same car or nicer. With the rising price of diesel fuel I can't see the diesel heads out looking for additional cars. :)

Its always a buyer's market. If its a seller's market your stupid for buying anyway. :)