What to do with hood hail damage?

[5111]

I live in Texas, and unfortunately, that means frequent hail. My last seven vehicles have all received hail damage. Before you say get a garage, I have a garage, but I also drive my vehicles and the hail always seems to happen when I’m out. Unfortunately, the bronco is the most recent casualty. The hood has five or six dents in it. With the frequency of hail here and the thin metal on the hood, I’m tempted to not fix it because it will probably happen again. But I can’t stand to see it on my practically new ride and it is right in my line of sight when driving.

Obviously, I have insurance, but even though this is a no-fault claim, we both know that it will affect my rate at my next renewal. If the damage is around $500, I’ll just pay it out of pocket. If it is drastically more, then I’ll go with insurance. But what I’m wondering is if I should instead spend $1500-$2000 to get a fiberglass hood (Cervini or ADV plus paint). The hood is the only spot on the bronco that received any damage, so I wonder if going with a fiberglass hood would pretty much stop this from happening.

Any thoughts?

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[BudgetBronco]

Take it to a Paintless Dent Repair place and get an estimate, those guys can work wonders and might cost less than $500 if only 6 dents on the hood

 

[HighVelocity]

Leave it off like a normal Texan.

 

[Bronc-E-Donk]

I saw way more hoodless cars cruising around when I lived in Kentucky than Texas.
In the last 13 years of being in TX I've only got caught in the hail once or twice and never when it was big enough to dent my vehicles, maybe im lucky.

I would say just fix it, it's a fairly new car and still looks nice. Personally I feel like the mindset of "not fix it will happen again" is for people that see cars as pure point A to point B utilities, and the bronco definitely isn't that (yet).

I don't think the non standard materials are popular enough for people to have feedback on how they hold up to hail, would be a good question for the manufacturer.

Rhino lining is more popular than being hoodless in TX maybe one of those folks could weigh in on if truck bed liner helps with hail.

 

[Bugkillah]

If any one asks, just tell them, “That’s not hail damage, that’s where I rolled it off-roading. You should have seen it before I banged most of it out.”

 

[DarthLincoln]

A fiberglass hood seems like an expensive solution for avoiding hail damage unless you are also interested in the custom look of their designs. The fiberglass should hold up better, but I don’t have any personal experience to say for sure.

You might check cars that do have fiberglass or SMC material hoods at local dealerships to see how they survived hail storms. Corvettes use SMC.

 

[615_Bronco]

Generally fiberglass holds up to hail.
The only time I’ve seen damage to fiberglass was softball size hail

 

[SierraBronco]

I’d give another vote for fiberglass. Had the misfortune in getting caught up in your Texas hail, and the aluminum panels took a beating. All the fiberglass was fine.

 

[Rockin’ & Rollin’]

Drill out the dents with a hole saw so your cold air intake can breathe.

 

[B22-2023]

I live in Texas, and unfortunately, that means frequent hail. My last seven vehicles have all received hail damage. Before you say get a garage, I have a garage, but I also drive my vehicles and the hail always seems to happen when I’m out. Unfortunately, the bronco is the most recent casualty. The hood has five or six dents in it. With the frequency of hail here and the thin metal on the hood, I’m tempted to not fix it because it will probably happen again. But I can’t stand to see it on my practically new ride and it is right in my line of sight when driving.

Obviously, I have insurance, but even though this is a no-fault claim, we both know that it will affect my rate at my next renewal. If the damage is around $500, I’ll just pay it out of pocket. If it is drastically more, then I’ll go with insurance. But what I’m wondering is if I should instead spend $1500-$2000 to get a fiberglass hood (Cervini or ADV plus paint). The hood is the only spot on the bronco that received any damage, so I wonder if going with a fiberglass hood would pretty much stop this from happening.

Any thoughts?

I bought an ADV hood and wrapped it for $325. Leaves me with a spare WT hood (carbonized grey), you can have it if you pick it up in Houston. Edit: the spare hood is ceramic coated so ya know, extra protection from hail.

 

[Danielsand]

This is a very generous offer ^^^^ and a temporary solution (in TX).

Fiberglass hood is a permanent solution for you. Fiberglass is ALMOST impervious to hail (unless ice "boulders" are coming down). Wanna go cheap? The offered free hood. Or,......couple grand (with paint) for the fiberglass. I like them. They make Bronco almost "custom".

 

[brkdncr]

How much is a new hood? I’d probably just leave it dented if it happens often.

 

[Phil B]

The other surfaces on your Bronco will still be vulnerable. A bad enough event can even damage vertical surfaces. Something like this might give you options? (If you don't get caught while driving.)

https://hailprotector.com/

 

[Danielsand]

I wonder what would be the result of covering the thing with MEK Magnet? Seems like the hail will just bounce off easily. Not sure about the hood, but vertical surfaces would definitely be well protected, and unaffected by hail.

 

[CalvinT]

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