Cobras and hail damage.

[Donunder]

Last Sunday my trusty old Honda Accord that I bought new in 1996 and which had led a very sheltered life, was caught out in a violent hail storm that tore through our suburb. The hail was ferocious and my poor old car copped a terrible battering, to the extent that it will be a write-off if I proceed with an insurance claim. My wife's car went through the same storm and the quote for it from a dent removal firm was $5889. The guy then looked at mine and said it would be a fair bit more than that to fix. I didn't bother with obtaining a quote...

I was interested to note that while every steel panel has damage to a greater or lesser degree, the plastic bumpers and boot spoiler are unmarked, as are the sunroof panel, windows and windscreen.

Not that I'm prepared to run a test but I'm now wondering whether a fibreglass Cobra would have fared better in this storm than a steel bodied car? Did the plastic components survive because there was perhaps a certain amount of "give" in them? In which case a firm glass body would possibly have been damaged as well. Does fibreglass react differently to plastic in these circumstances? Has anyone had the misfortune to find out?

[Zedn]

I would expect that the fibreglass will be more brittle and potentially get star cracks.

[stephen low]

I don't know the real answer either but I'd tend to agree with Zedn's statement albiet I don't think it is brittleness as the right term but perhaps ductility or deformability of material perhaps.

The plastics have quite some ability to deform and flex but retain the original shape, whereas the steel panels are quite thin and once dented do not reform.

The fibreglass however would probably be stiffer than both the plastic or metal thus neither dint nor deform but simply transfer the impact into the paint and perhaps star crack as suggested.

Can't say I've been caught in any significant hailstorms whilst sailing else I could probably have answered this question from experience.

Best bet keep the cobra under cover lest you then also slip into the bounds of that other thread - Cobra stolen!!

Slo

[T.L.]

cars nowadays are made from <1mm thick steel, to make them light for fuel economy.
Years ago they were 1.6mm. I have a 1982 FJ40, you can hit the panels, they wont move and you will have a sore hand. I'd imagine a hail bomb to shatter into a million pieces upon hitting the 40!. Trees branches just leave some nice bush pin striping along the sides, but nothing is dented unless you have a really big stack!.

[750hp]

I think the glass would have coped with most of the hail stones, but it only takes a couple of the really big stones to cause deep stress cracks to require some significant repairs. It's a legit insurance claim, so it looks like you wrote two cars off within 15 minutes. Good effort.

[Rebel1]

Bloke next door has a Haines 1600S which has now gone thru a couple of bad hail storms.

Not a chip to be found.

Mind you .. this is north Brissy and our hail is a little more ahmmmm refined.

[David Hodgson]

Originally Posted by Rebel1

Mind you .. this is north Brissy and our hail is a little more ahmmmm refined.

Is that another word for 'soft' Les

[Philm]

I thought its just rain that thinks its hail

[Smokeyr67]

Out here in the wild wild west of Brisbane, where the hailstones are huge and the teenagers scary, I almost managed to get undercover befor the storm hit, I copped two little bits of damage on my new ute (2500k's) - A small dint on the bonnet and a split PC headlight protector. Lucky it's insured and a lease