I bet your body could of fit nicely over the portion you neglected to protect. I guess some people aren't as dedicated as some of us.

Good for you for being able to protect it. I remember when I lived in Texas I ruined my yard driving the car up under a tree trying to protect it from a hail storm. That was a tough choice - yard or car.

 

To heck with the blanket---get a helmet.

 

Do you think one day a golf ball finish will become vogue?

 

Dan I had a similar reaction when my 2004 HCH was brand new.
We converted our two car garage into a rec-room months earlier so our 2 vehiles parked outside.
The weatherman said hail was on the way so I parked her under our 2nd floor 12 foot square deck. The rear stuck out so I too used something like pillows.

But the hail never came.

Later that month we got one of those pre-fab metal carports installed on our property whch can house both our vehicles in those cases.

Only last Monday a big wave of severe weather came through and both were safely tucked away. Although it only rained hard for a few minutes it was the same storm which caused all those recent deadly tornados/hail.

 

That is one huge hailstone. :-)

I second the helmet. :-)

 

I don't mean to upstage your HCH protection adventure, but I gotta tell this story.

I didn't have the HCH yet at the time, but last october we had a hail storm that made the national news. Check out the link below. Literally baseball size hail, see the pic of a 3" hailball sitting on a ruler.

As you can see, my blue dodge truck looks trashed, but compared to other cars in town it wasn't bad (though mine was totalled, it actually turned out to be a pretty good deal for me, I never planned on selling it anyway so I just got a big check out it). At least my windows stayed intact. Most cars in the parking lot where I was had the windows totally blown out and the cars filled with tree branches and other refuse. Saturns had shattered body panels.

I work on a college campus and the whole place looked like a war zone. The golf course was totally devastated, check out the last pic shows one of the greens, talk about ball marks! The roof of my house had holes all the way through it - hail went through the shingles, roof boards and into the attic. there was over $15,000 damage to the house.

Lots of pics of this crazy hail storm

 

Wow!

 

Those responses and stories are all great! Zimbop, that Dodge really had some damage (really nothing compared to here)!

I think I'll be checking out the bubble wrap coccoon idea... pretty clever! I had thought of laying down on the back of the car... but it did look a little painful. Guess I'm not as dedicated to protecting the car as I thought.

The cadillac next to me has a good 15-30 ding/dents on it. I think my situation turned out just fine, after inspecting my car, I've only got 3-4 actual dents on the trunk. I'm trying to figure out if I should go with the "paintless dent removal" or just buy a new trunk piece... Anyone have experience with dent removal? I would think that the area that had the small dent would have weaker paint and be more prone to peeling?

Thanks everyone for listening to me rant!

Regards,

Dan

 

Dan, I have a hopeful answer for you. My standards are extremely high for bodywork, and I used to restore and show (concours) 99-100 pt. cars, as a hobby.

A good dent tech (inquire) can remove many dents so that they are undetectable, even to the best-trained eye. I have had dents as large as 6" removed successfully, with NO trace of damage. When it is done skillfully, the metal and paint are exactly as when new. You will be truly amazed.

Try to contact some high-end dealers and find their preferred dent vendor. You will have to do some sleuthing to find out who their top tech is. Usually, one guy will do the extremely high-end cars, and that's the one you want to find.

Your paint will not be prone to peeling. Good luck!