JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. – It was a dark and stormy night for most of Jefferson County Wednesday evening.
Calls poured into Shelton Collision Thursday morning, all sharing a common problem: hail damage.
“I’m seeing anywhere from dents from the baseball sized down to the smaller ping pong ball size,” Chris Shelton, owner of Shelton Collision, said. “The smaller dents, of course, they’re able to survive that paintless dent process and save a vehicle for a lesser price. As to where the golf ball, baseball-sized, bigger hail, involves replacing panels and doing things and it becomes costly.”
The damage can cost between three and five thousand dollars a car, and on rare cases, up to $11,000 to repair significant damage.
Almost like illusionists, collision repair specialists can take dents out of a car and get it back on the road. Shelton says he is seeing more business from nearby communities that received the worst hail than High Springs.
“Hail stones are jagged,” he said. “They’re not real smooth. So, you add heavy force winds, 50 to 60 miles an hour winds, and yeah, it becomes catastrophic at some point.”
