Car body shops are seeing an increase in calls after hail storm

AMERICAN FORK — As large hail filled the streets of Utah County Tuesday, loud clunks of ice could be heard not only hitting people’s homes, but their cars too.

“You can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it,” said Travis Olsen, owner of AF Collision, a body shop in American Fork.

Olsen said he and other body shops across Utah County and insurance companies have been getting an influx of inquiries on how to repair their cars.

“Right now, we’re scheduling only into about the middle of next week. But I can tell you right now that tomorrow that may be two weeks out because we can only process so many cars at a time.” Olsen said.

Since Tuesday, Olsen said more Utahns are noticing the damage to their cars.

“The challenging thing about hail damage is how extensive it can get,” he said as he “mapped” out one of several cars brought into his shop, searching for small dents caused by the hail. “We’ll just sit here and circle all of them until we identify all the damage.”

Olsen said cars with hail damage typically get fixed with paintless dent repair.

“(Technicians) have a process where they can glue tabs onto (the dent), and they’ll pull it with glue. The other option that they have is they’ll get behind the panel, and they use spoons and pry bars, and they work, from behind it with those other tools,” he said.

Olsen said the insurance company decides what they will cover for the parts of someone’s car that need to be repaired or replaced. He also recommends that car owners who want their cars repaired do their research and go to a company they trust.

“I would suggest to anybody that’s dealing with this right now is (to) get on a schedule as soon as you can, as every day goes by, I’m booking up really fast,” he said.