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Old 08-31-2012, 07:59 PM   #1
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Hail Hit Camper - How to fix?

This June we where camping at my Mom's house in upper NYS. This was when the weather went nuts of swelter hot to hard rain and then worse hail.

We ended up with this, 5 minutes worth of destruction for any one in the area growing fruit. And any one with a vehicle out in it. The houses across the street dispersed it was coming down so hard. My BIL's wife had her new GM SUV about totaled being in the work parking lot. Our truck thank goodness was protected by my Mom's house and did not take a direct hit.


The camper was out in the field next to the house, oh boy...so after the storm passed I went out to looked and and did a quick walk around. Thank goodness, no damage. That was until the next morning when the sun was shining bright on the side of the camper. Oh no...

The siding that has Krystal Kote on it had no damage at all. However the strip of siding that has the decal striping is just painted aluminum and it was hit. The pics here do not show it as bad as it is. It does not show up that much until the bright sun hits it and then it looks like camper was shot with a blast of BB's.







Has anyone ever dealt with this? I'm looking for ways on how to fix this, myself. I do not recall seeing before on SOC this topic. I'm "hoping" someone has worked through fixing this themselves before.

My thoughts are "maybe" use the tools the pop a dent guys use on car dings. The only questions are this is not steel, it is thin aluminum. I have never "yet" seen how the auto pop a dent guys do this. Any one know?

Thanks

John
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Old 08-31-2012, 10:03 PM   #2
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WOW!!! Certainly not something you want to find. Sorry I have no experince with the pop a dent tool guys, however I have read of an old trick for removing small dents like the ones in the photos. I have never actually tried this myself so I don't know if it will actually work or not but it might be with a try. What you are suppose to do is get some dry ice. You then take a small piece of it and place it, or hold it against the dent. Since the dry ice is super cold the idea is that it will shrink the dent in the metal resulting in the dent being pulled out as the metal shrinks. The last bit then pops back out as the metal returns back to normal temperature.

Here are a couple of links that describe the proceedure:

Removing Dents With Dry Ice | eHow.com

How to Remove Dents Using Dry Ice | eHow.com


If you do try this, please let me know if it works or not.
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Old 09-02-2012, 04:30 PM   #3
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Bill,

Thanks for the tip. I will follow that lead. Reading up on it is sort of mixed bag. But again that is on car steel. The thin aluminum may respond different. I have heard on the car steel that once ice fixed, it pops back in again once the car get's hot. Again the internet is filled with yes it can and no it doesn't. Even if I can take 1/2 the dent out is better than nothing.

I was linked to these guys by a friend of mine. ::HAILUSA.COM INTRO PAGE:: They may do a form of cryogenic something. And they talk about doing what ever it is they do, on aluminum as well as cars, houses etc.

Thanks and if I find anything I'll posts the what I did.

This much I know, I will not ever get an aluminum sided camper that does not have Krystal Kote on it. This could of been are real big deal if it was not for that coating.

John
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Old 09-02-2012, 07:48 PM   #4
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Ugh, wow. Hail has to be one of the top 3 reasons why I see Sunlines in the insurance auctions.

I think the best way to remove them would be to take the tin off and pound them out gently from the back side. My Cruze had some small dents that I found in it just prior to delivery, and their dent guy came out to fix them where I can't see anything now. There were 3 of them on the hood. He just took the hood blanket off and pounded them out gently from the back.
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Old 09-06-2012, 07:29 AM   #5
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Hail sucks...
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Old 09-07-2012, 06:10 AM   #6
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JohnB..insurance will cover the hail damage--ask me how I know! and believe it or not, you will then soon not notice the dents as much! My 2553 was peppered just 2 weeks after we bought it..I ended up trading it in a few months later. The headliner was the worst part when the sun shined.I still get nervous when hail is predicted! Janalee
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