Small hail damage does not disappear, and it does not stay private. The paint depth gauge in an appraiser's hand reads every panel at trade-in, and what comes off your offer is often larger than your deductible. Find out what you are actually looking at before you decide to live with it.
426 Miami St, Leavenworth, KS 66048 · (913) 907-5180
Walk into a trade-in appraisal and one of the first tools out of the drawer is a paint depth gauge. It reads the thickness of the finish on every panel and tells the appraiser in seconds whether a car has been repainted and where. Then they walk the roof and the hood in the light, because they do this every day and hail is the easiest thing in the world to spot when you are looking for it.
Nothing about a few small dents stays private. It goes on the appraisal, and it comes off the number. The same is true of a private buyer who knows what to look for. Damage you decided to live with turns into a deduction you did not get to choose.
A lot of owners skip small hail damage because they file it in their head next to a collision. Hail is not a collision. It falls under comprehensive coverage, the part of your policy built for weather, theft, and falling objects, and nobody is assigned fault for a storm.
That is a different conversation than the one you may be picturing, and it is worth having with your agent before you decide to eat the damage. If you would rather look at the money side first, get the damage documented and then decide. A free scan does not start anything.
Just a few dents is a guess, and it is usually wrong. Our Argus 3D scanner runs the whole vehicle in one pass and documents every panel, including the shallow ones on the roof you cannot see from where you are standing. It takes about 10 minutes, it is free, and it does not require a claim.
What comes back is an insurance-grade count, not an opinion. Most owners are surprised by the number, and it is the first honest basis anyone has given them for deciding whether the repair is worth doing. Look at the count, then decide. That is the entire reason the scan is free.
There is no version of this where the panel relaxes back into shape on its own. What does change is the finish. Paint stretched over a dent sits through sun and heat cycles all summer, and once the clear coat cracks or the paint splits at a crease, paintless dent repair is off the table. At that point you are looking at filler and a repaint on a car that has never been painted.
The window where this is a five to seven day paintless job with your factory finish intact is open now and does not stay open forever. Every panel we repair carries a lifetime warranty, you are in a free loaner while we have the car, and your original paint is never sanded, filled, or repainted.
A paint depth gauge, which takes about a second per panel, plus an appraiser who inspects cars for a living. Unrepaired hail shows up in raking light across a roof or hood, and repainted panels show up on the gauge. It is one of the first things checked at trade-in.
That depends on the actual count, which is exactly why we scan for free. In many cases the hit to trade-in or private sale value is larger than the deductible, and hail falls under comprehensive coverage rather than being an at-fault claim. Get the documented number first, then take it to your agent.
That is what it is built for. The dent is worked out from behind the panel, so your factory paint is never sanded, filled, or repainted. Every panel we repair carries a lifetime warranty.
Then get the free scan anyway and make that call with a real number instead of a glance. It takes about 10 minutes, no claim required, and you owe nothing either way. If the count comes back small enough that living with it makes sense for you, we will say so.
Olathe is about 30 miles out in a straight line, Overland Park about 26, Kansas City, Kansas about 21, and downtown Kansas City, Missouri about 23. Those are map distances rather than drive times, so check your route. You get a free loaner while your car is with us, so you are not paying for a rental or sitting in a lobby.
Free Argus 3D scan at 426 Miami St in Leavenworth, about 10 minutes, no claim required.
Or call (913) 907-5180 and talk to a dent tech, not a call center.