Can You Fix Hail Damage on Your Car Yourself?

Not really. Every popular home fix for hail damage (dry ice, a hair dryer or heat gun, parking in the sun, compressed air, a plunger) relies on the dent popping back by itself, and hail dents rarely do. At best one or two dents change a little. At worst you add a new problem to a panel that already has plenty, before anyone has counted the damage.

The short answer: why home hail fixes rarely work

Every one of these tricks shares the same idea: shock or flex the metal and it will spring back to where it was.

That idea has a grain of truth. A large, shallow, soft dent on a flexible panel can sometimes pop back with very little help. Some of the viral videos are real. They just tend to show that one kind of dent.

Hail dents are close to the opposite:

• They are small with a tight centre. The metal folded in at one point rather than flexing in over a wide area.
• They come in groups. One storm can leave a panel covered in them, not just one.
• They land on the stiffest panels. Roofs and hoods face the sky, and many have bracing underneath. Some hoods are aluminum, which holds its shape more stubbornly than steel.

So a trick that might move one big, soft dent has very little to work with on a hail-damaged roof. If a storm caused your damage, the realistic home job is documenting it, not removing it.

Here is what each method claims, and what tends to happen on hail.

Myth 1: dry ice pops the dent out

The claim: rub a piece of dry ice over the dent, and the sudden cold makes the metal contract and snap back into place.

What tends to happen: on a large, soft dent, people sometimes report a small change. On hail dents, technicians generally say there is little or nothing to see, because the tight centre of a hail dent does not want to spring back on its own.

Dry ice also needs careful handling. It is cold enough to hurt bare skin, so heavy gloves are not optional. Many technicians also caution against putting extreme cold on one small spot of paint. Which raises a fair question: what the hail are you doing holding something that can hurt you, to fix something cosmetic, with a low chance of it working?

Myth 2: a hair dryer or heat gun does it

The claim: heat the dent and the warm metal relaxes back out.

What tends to happen: a hair dryer warms the panel and that is about all. The metal gets warm, and the dent stays a dent.

A heat gun is a different tool. It runs far hotter than a hair dryer, and the risk sits with the paint. Many technicians caution that a heat gun held in one spot can damage the finish. Damaged paint is the one thing that turns a paintless repair into a paint repair, so this is the trick most likely to make the eventual fix bigger.

Myth 3: heat it, then hit it with compressed air

The claim: this is the most shared version. Warm the dent with a hair dryer, then turn a can of compressed air upside down and spray the cold propellant onto it. The sudden switch from hot to cold is supposed to pop the dent.

What tends to happen: the same as dry ice, with extra steps. The method depends on the dent leaving by itself once the metal has been heated and chilled, and hail dents generally need to be worked out, not shocked out. Expect a lot of hissing and very little change.

Many technicians also caution against fast swings between heat and cold on paint. You do not need to find out for yourself on your own hood.

Myth 4: park it in the sun and the dents will relax out

The claim: a hot day softens the panels and the dents ease out over a few afternoons.

What tends to happen: nothing to the dents. This one is harmless, which puts it ahead of the others.

It can still fool you, though. Bright overhead sun lights a panel evenly and hides the small shadows dents make. A car parked in noon sun can look much better than it did after the storm without a single dent having moved. Check it again in soft, low-angle light before you decide it fixed itself.

Myth 5: a plunger will pull it out

The claim: wet the rim of a plunger, push it onto the dent and pull.

What tends to happen: a plunger cup is far wider than a hail dent, so it pulls on the good metal around the dent as much as on the dent itself. On one big, soft dent it occasionally works. On a panel of small hail dents it does almost nothing, and pulling hard on a cold panel is how people end up with high spots.

Plungers belong to the same family as suction cup pullers and glue kits. Which tools are worth trying, and on which dents, is all in our post on dent pullers versus PDR, so we will not repeat it here.

What a DIY attempt can make harder

The risks from these tricks are rarely dramatic. They tend to be quieter than that:

• High spots. A pull that goes too far leaves raised metal that has to be brought back down before the dent can be finished.
• Paint stress. Many technicians caution that heat, cold and hard pulls are the usual suspects when paint ends up damaged, and damaged paint takes a spot out of paintless repair.
• A muddier record. If some dents have been worked on and others have not, the damage is harder to document clearly.

That last one matters if you plan to claim. Under Alberta's Insurance Act, the statutory conditions in an auto policy say no repairs beyond what is immediately necessary to protect the car, without the insurer's written consent or before it has had a reasonable chance to inspect. Hail is claimed under comprehensive (or all perils) coverage, not collision, so talk to your insurer before you touch the panels. You can read the conditions in the Insurance Act itself.

What you can actually do yourself

There is useful DIY after hail. It just does not involve the metal.

1. Check the car properly. Soft, low-angle light, roof and hood first, looking along each panel at a reflection.
2. Photograph every panel at a low angle, plus close-ups of any chips, cracks or broken trim.
3. Cover broken glass before the next rain. Protecting the car from further damage is something the same statutory conditions ask of you.
4. Get the damage counted. A proper count under controlled light is what the estimate, the claim and the repair all start from.

If you want to know what a technician does with the metal instead, see how paintless dent repair works. If you want to know whether your particular dents are a paintless job at all, our guide to whether PDR can fix any dent covers the limits.

Before you reach for the hair dryer

Get a look at the damage first. Book a free 30-minute scan at the shop in SE Calgary, or send a few photos taken at a low angle with light running across each panel. You will hear what you are dealing with, whether any paint is broken, and what the repair involves, before you spend a cent on dry ice.