Minor hail dent repair

negativegravity

Filing Flight Plan
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negativegravity
Aside from repainting the entire airplane or reskinning, is there any other way to repair minor hail damage? Most of the pictures I've seen make the airplane look like a golf ball and are very obvious. I looked over my Cessna and found a few dozen shallow divots spread out over the entire airframe most of them not noticeable unless you happen to see it at a shallow angle. I'm considering my options and how that would affect resale value in the future.
 
Just go fly and enjoy the golf ball effect

golf-ball-dimples-1004-02.jpg
 
That would be great, if you were flying a golf ball.

There was a thread here not long ago where dent filler was discussed, a little.
 
A friend got some hail damage on his Skyhawk. Insurance cut him a nice check and he kept flying it.
 
There is a company in my area called Dent King that can do simply amazing work on dents with no paint work needed. They specialize in paintless auto dent repair and are magicians. They took out about 150 dents in my new truck which was damaged by the dealer and I could not see a blemish when they were done. Believe me I looked with an extreemely close eye sighting down the panel with a light to hiighlight the area and it was truly flawless. Would have loved to see how the heck they did it. Perfection !. I would bet there is a similar business in your area. Might be worth a try. They charged the dealer in my case $500 . Which saved him the cost of a new truck.
 
Okay... Say you had PDR done on an aircraft with hail damage... Is that enough of an alteration or repair to require a logbook entry by an A&P or IA?
 
Okay... Say you had PDR done on an aircraft with hail damage... Is that enough of an alteration or repair to require a logbook entry by an A&P or IA?
Maintenance is maintenance, and requires a entry to return to service, It's just a matter of who can sign it off.
 
It would be a minor repair... but depending on manufacturer's manuals, I've seen aircraft that did not allow skin damage rework, and I've seen some that do as long as the area is inspected for cracking by eddy current.
 
Is it easy to total these things after hail damage? What kind of dollar amounts would re-skinning top of wings, replacement of control surfaces and top of fuselage bring about? What is the customary behavior for insurance companies when it comes to hail?
 
If the damage is minor,keep flying the airplane. Owned a Travelair with minor hail damage,got it at a good price,flew it 800 hours,it's still flying,the new owner has since had it painted.
 
Is it easy to total these things after hail damage? What kind of dollar amounts would re-skinning top of wings, replacement of control surfaces and top of fuselage bring about? What is the customary behavior for insurance companies when it comes to hail?

You can call Karl Anderson at Aircraft Northwest 1-360-757-1946 he does this for a living. He'd be able to tell the cost for repairs.
 
I'm currently in for repair and paint after hail damage. Many planes on my field were hit by a storm. After deductible, the insurance company is picking up 100% of the mechanical repairs and about 1/2 the paint job. Their reasoning to me was it's didn't hail on the bottom of the plane.

You must be very careful what you decide you want in working with an adjuster. If the costs are over 50% of the pre hail insured hull value, they will just total the plane, pay you off and take it away. If you are okay with that, then fine, but otherwise it might be a bad decision to have them cover too much.

While they agree to pay the repairs and a negotiated value of the paint required, there is another step - they will probably offer a lesser amount in cash to just walk away without fixing anything. Quite a few owners on my field chose that and just fly with dents.

The repairs include filler after the paint is stripped on the fuselage and wings. It's not bondo as people think, it's flexible and light - and not much is left on the plane after they sand it out. Lot's of opinions about this step, but much of the negative it about products decades ago or applied poorly. The larger cost and work is for ailerons, stabilator, flaps - essentially all the moving parts except the prop need to be taken off the plane and reskinned or replaced.

Of course once you start this work, the temptation to add things is pretty strong. In my case that's modern wing-tips, slight upgrade in paint designs, led lighting, removing strobes, body repair unrelated to hail...

Figure a decent paint job is $10-$18,000 - insurance pays half.
Mechanical repairs are harder to estimate without them looking at it - in my case about $18,000.
What you decide to add yourself - bottomless pit.
 
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Do the paintless dent removal systems work on aluminum? Aluminum has a very different response than steel to stress.
 
fly it. we had one of our helicopters with hail damage on the rotor blades all up and down the length of it and all just barely within manufacturer's tolerances. it was the strongest ship in the fleet, in other words we hauled more ass with that thing.
 
Do the paintless dent removal systems work on aluminum? Aluminum has a very different response than steel to stress.
Yes it works on aluminum. But, I've been told that un bending a bent piece of 2024-T3 is an unwise thing to do. Also, I've found that the paintless dent repair, may well remove the dent, but the paint at that point will be damaged (cracked) and will allow the start of corrosion due to moisture seeping into the cracks. But by the time it gets noticed, it's too late to go back on the PDR company, or the insurance company, as it's out of warrenty.
 
Yes, depending on the value of the aircraft it is easy to total one. A friend of mine had a '65 Cherokee 180 insured for $40k, he noted a bit of barely noticeable hail damage after a thunderstorm last summer. The adjuster was primed to total it sight unseen. He actually negotiated a price with the adjuster at $20k, and then sold the plane to a friend for the remaining $20k. He now flies a '65 Debonair, and all of the parties involved walked away happy. Good deal, I'd say!
 
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