3/6/2019

How To Calculate Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) Cost For Hail Damage On A Car

How to calculate paintless dent repair (PDR) cost for auto hail damage and other car dents guide for consumers 2019.

Ann insurance adjuster inspects hail damage on a car to estimate the paintless dent removal repair cost.

If you are the owner of a car with hail damage, door dings, or other minor dents, it is very likely that you have found yourself wondering how much it would cost to have your car repaired.

Car hail damage, door dents and creases, or other minor dings can wreak havoc on your vehicles appearance, as well as its resale value. While these ugly car dents usually occur by no fault of your own, whether its caused by hail during a sudden spring thunderstorm, a runaway shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot, or the owner of another vehicle who carelessly hits your vehicle as they open their door, it can be very frustrating trying to keep your car free of dents and dings. Fortunately, these days having a car dent, door ding, crease, and even hail damage professionally repaired is one of the easier tasks when it comes to vehicle repair and maintenance. Thanks to a revolutionary new auto dent repair method known as Paintless Dent Removal, orPDR for short, your car dents, door dings, and even hail damage can be repaired quickly and at a fraction of the cost of traditional car dent repair methods. If you are reading this article, chances are you have a car with hail damage, door dings, or other minor body damage and are wondering about the cost to have them repaired. Well you are definitely in the right place!
The cost of Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) on a dented car will be determined by several factors:

The location of the dent(s) on a given panel - dents in difficult to access places, such as on the edge of a panel, or a dent in a body line are much trickier to repair than a dent in the middle of a panel.
Size of the dent(s) - as you might expect, the size of a dent is one of the main factors in determining paintless dent removal cost. Smaller dents, approximately the size of a quarter, may take only a few minutes to repair in an optimal setting. A larger dent, say larger than the size of an egg, can take hours to fix.
Amount of R&I involved - in order to access the backside of a dent, a requirement when using the paintless dent repair method, the technician will usually have to Remove (the R in "R&I") and then when finished Install (the I) vehicle components such as headlights or tail lights, door moldings, and even the headliner for dents on the roof of a car.
The vehicle's make and model - some cars are simply easier, or harder, to work on than others. This can be due to poor panel access, lower quality sheet metal, or very complex R&I operations.
The type of metal on the car - auto makers have traditionally used steel to produce the body panels on their cars, however, with today's concerns about fuel economy and vehicle emissions, manufacturers are increasingly turning to aluminum and other light weight alloys to comply with environmental regulations. Aluminum in particular is much more difficult to repair than steel using paintless dent removal.
Amount of time involved - like many service industries, for most paintless dent repair technicians, dent repair cost is based primarily on how much time will be needed to complete the repair. Much like a restaurant without patrons, you should always beware of an empty paintless dent repair shop, even if they quote you a great price.
Estimating matrix - for cars with hail damage, the dent repair cost is usually calculated using a chart known as a dent matrix or PDR pricing chart. Its a table like list of each panel of a car with numerical values assigned based on the average size and number of dents on each panel. Dent matrixes are the standard estimating tool used by insurance adjusters in determining the cost of paintless dent repair for hail damage on cars.