A car owner or pickup truck owner should be careful when driving, to prevent accidents or other incidents. Most drivers are indeed quite responsible about how they drive, but there is always the risk of a collision, bad weather, or other issues. A minor car collision, hail damage, flying debris, or vandalism may damage a car’s paint job, put dents in its body, crack the windshield, and more. Such damage is unsightly and impairs how the car drives, so the owner is urged to visit auto body repair shops to have professionals take care of it. A car may also need to visit an auto paint shop if its paint is scratched or scraped off, and some car owners can repaint the car themselves. What is there to know about hail damage and other hazards to a car?
Car Accidents and Other Hazards
One major source of car body damage is auto accidents, which are fairly common. Reckless, drunk, or distracted drivers are often known to speed, drive erratically, or run red lights, and they may strike another car and damage its body and paint alike. In other cases, a car may go out of control, such as if it slipped on an icy road, and crash into a street light o mailbox or other object. Even if a car isn’t totaled (that’s a different topic entirely), there will be some damage, and a car owner should not drive around in a damaged car. Auto services should get their hands on that car at once to repair it.
Hail damage is another hazard to cars. Most hail is in fact harmless and small, but larger hail pieces the size of golf balls (or bigger) are likely to pound a car with dents all over. A car can be parked indoors or under a roof unit protect it from hail damage, and car owners may want to check weather forecasts if the weather looks iffy. Another hazard to a car’s body is flying debris, often when a truck’s cargo was not secured properly and goes flying while driving on the road. Bricks, rocks, and other objects may fly through the air and strike the roof or hood of cars behind that truck, pounding huge dents in them. And finally, a major hazard is vandalism, when a person throws objects at a car or strikes it with instruments (such as tire irons) to put dents in its body on purpose.
Should any of this happen, a car’s owner should take it to a shop at once for repairs. Those dents in the car’s body are not only unsightly, but they also interfere with the car’s aerodynamic qualities, reducing fuel efficiency. That, and the car’s resale value may be lower. After finding local auto repair shops (such as through an online search), a car can have its metal body parts taken off so that the crews can pound out the dents from the other side. This can also be done for the car’s wheel rims, which are often made of soft aluminum. Often, repairing dents coincides with paint repair as well.
Windshields and Paint
Many hazards that damage a car’s body may also strike the windshield and put cracks in it, from flying debris to large hail to vandalism. A car’s windshield may have a long, thin crack, or a spiderweb shaped crack. A cracked windshield should be replaced right away, since the crack may widen as the car is used and air pressure is applied to the windshield. The glass might even shatter entirely, and even if it doesn’t, the cracks are very distracting for the driver. Cars with cracked windshields also tend to fail safety inspections. So, the owner can look up auto shops that offer windshield replacement, and get a new one fitted in.
If the car’s paint is flaking off, scratched, or scraped off, the owner can take the vehicle to an auto paint shop. There, the crews will approximate the car’s paint color with available stock, and touch up the paint. Some car owners do this themselves, and order the right paint online. Once it arrives, the owner will sand down the affected area, then apply primer, paint, and sealant in that order, an allow it all to dry.
