When Baseball‑Sized Hail Turns Cars Into Total Losses

Colorado hail storms can destroy a vehicle in a matter of minutes, and in this video I take you inside what actually happens when baseball‑sized hail pounds the Front Range. I break down the difference between damage that’s merely cosmetic and damage that compromises the structure of the vehicle—because knowing which category you’re dealing with changes everything about how the repair should be handled. I also walk through how insurance settlements work when a car is totaled, why the first number you’re offered isn’t always the right one, and how understanding your coverage can save you thousands of dollars during a stressful claim.

From there, I dig into what modern vehicles hide behind their glass and body panels. Today’s cars rely heavily on ADAS systems, cameras, and sensors, which means even something as simple as a windshield replacement can require precise calibration to restore safety features. I explain when roof replacement becomes necessary, why it’s such an invasive structural repair, and why following OEM procedures is critical for long‑term safety.

Hail storms often bring heavy rain, too, so I cover the risks of water intrusion—especially for EVs, where the battery pack sits low and can be affected by even shallow flooding. Water exposure can create electrical faults that are difficult to trace and often make the vehicle unsafe or not economically repairable.

To learn more about Ozzie's Body Shop visit:
https://www.OzziesBodyShop.com
Ozzie's Body Shop 
5280 N. Garfield Ave.
Loveland, Colorado 80538
970-667-7849 

Transcript

Welcome To Ozzy’s Body Shop

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Crash Course, the Aussies Body Shop Show, where bent metal, mystery noises, and uh-oh moments meet Northern Colorado's finest collision repair center. Hosted by Megan Mueller, co-owner and CEO of Ozzy's Body Shop, an OEM certified and authorized collision repair facility that's been getting families safely back on the road since 1967. From fender benders to full-on frame repairs. Insurance questions to will this ever look right again? Megan's here to explain it all in plain English. With a little grease, a little grace, and a lot of art. Because around here, the motto's simple. To be the best, you gotta be the best. And your car deserves nothing less. Let's pull into the shop and get started.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Next

Colorado Hail Risk And Real Damage

SPEAKER_01 1:02

to driver on driver accidents on the road, there's something possibly more dangerous to you and your car's well-being. And that's even harder to avoid, Mother Nature, particularly if you're in Colorado. So, right now, welcome everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer with Megan Mueller, the co-owner and CEO of Ozzy's Body Shop. Megan, we hope that you're having a good afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for joining us. And you know, as we're recording this session, you mentioned that, you know, hail is a big issue there. And I wonder what it looks like in your repair shop right now, and how much of it has to do with hail.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Yeah, so um right now we're actually under stormwatches, like pretty heavy stormwatches, both today and tomorrow. There have been quite a few storms that have been a little bit south of us, a lot out eastern Colorado, but um it seems like it's kind of starting to back up against what we call the foothills, which is where we're located. They're talking potential baseball-sized hail, which just it's incredible. I mean, it happened last year in a town maybe 30 minutes from us called Millican, and it went straight through, you know, sunroofs and windshields and back glass. It can be incredibly destructive. Even last year, there was a huge one in Cheyenne, which is about 40 minutes north of us, and it happened at the big military base up there. So, you know, tons of cars were involved and extremely damaging hail again on the on that one. So there's a couple of different situations that it that come with hail that I would like to discuss. So one of them is of course, if the vehicle is repairable and it's just the dents, you know, very drivable, no, the windshield, the glass, everything's fine. It's all cosmetic for the most part, right? Um, the other situation is for people where we have just those incredibly destructive storms run through and what their options are to make sure that they are protected when it comes to their settlement, because those vehicles are typically going to total. So, yeah.

Insurance Coverage And Fair Settlements

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Wow. And you know, we talked about this before, and you mentioned, you know, take a look at your auto insurance policy and make sure you're knowledgeable of what you actually have and it makes sense for you. So, what about a lot of your clients? Do they come in and they did not have coverage and they did not know?

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Sometimes, um, or they just don't know what their coverage is. So, with some insurance companies, we talked about the appraisal clause in a previous episode. Like such an important option to have both repair if your vehicle is repairable or if it totals. So, if it totals, I highly encourage people to give us a call. We obviously don't do those appraisals, but we have a few really great options for you that we can put you in contact with here in Colorado that will look at the settlement offer that you've been offered and give you an honest feedback about whether or not it's a fair value. And if not, how they can get involved and help. I just highly encourage people to at least utilize that right so that they can feel confident that when the swarm rained big ice falls, that they're going to get a fair settlement for their vehicle. Um, and you know, call us anytime. It's absolutely free knowledge that we would love to pass on.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

So yeah, thanks for providing all that information. And when you do have repairs, these cars, is it more cosmetic, like you're mentioning? Is it more external, or is there a lot more damage that you a lot of people don't see until they, you know, obviously something doesn't work in the car, but like, is there a more vulnerable area of the car if it gets hit by you know one of these snowballs?

Hidden Repairs Roofs Glass ADAS

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Like it's like very scary.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Right. We've talked so much before about like these um eight-as components, the automatic driving assistance systems. And you wouldn't think that it plays into hail, but it absolutely does. If you're replacing your glass, uh, a lot of these vehicles, their automatic braking systems are reading through that glass. So having calibrations done even after a glass replacement is extremely important. A lot of the hail damage that we see these days is going to involve a roof replacement. And if you're going to a shop that may not be reading repair procedures, a roof replacement is a significantly invasive procedure on a vehicle. Um, you want to make sure that that is done correctly so that, like we've talked about before, the inertia that goes around a vehicle should you be in a front-end collision or a rear end collision or whatever, that's going to involve your roof, the way that all of that energy transfers.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So yeah, repairing vehicles is just not simple anymore. No. And you know, I I was wondering too, like, are there other things that happen because of these hail storms? I mean, I was reading about this and that it can um like affect like the the you know, the plumbing, the the sewer system, things like that, and there's like flooding more likely. I don't know if you've seen any of that, which um the storms, and then that, you know, that impacts the cars because now we have like a flooding issue in some areas, and now they're you know, who knows what happens. I don't know, you know the best with water damage to the bottom of the car.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

We have seen so I mean, even just one of the storms that happened in Denver just this year, it was people were putting out photos because they were using um large equipment to basically remove it as if it was like two or three feet of snow. Wow, it was it was a wild hail storm. Um when it comes to anything that's going to involve flooding, especially with all of the electronics that are in these vehicles, typically it's not going to be repairable at that point.

Flooding EV Batteries And Total Loss

SPEAKER_02 6:42

If you've had a ton of water inside of the vehicle, it is likely going to be determined as total loss, simply out of safety reasons, because you'll be chasing your tail potentially for a very long time trying to diagnose just how much damage occurred.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Sure, sure. And even if the car is like just to the tires, up to the tires and water, and the whole bottom is like immersed, is that you know, especially with an EV, that would be a major concern.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

That's where the entire battery is sitting. So, so an EV, that would be a concern to be in that much water for a substantial amount of time. With other vehicles, it's really so much of what happens right when a vehicle goes into a shop, something called a pre-diagnostic scan. And if it's being done to the OE standards, um, that diagnostic scan is gonna show that if there are any trouble codes or any faults that are hitting the system when they became active. And I mean, if you're looking at like electrical issues, you're gonna see that scan just light up like a Christmas tree. So you'll have a good idea that there's substantial concerns.

Overpass Stopping Dangers On Highways

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, and are there a lot more accidents too? I mean, with these hail storms. So that's another reason why you have to see, you know, more more new, new customers, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

There certainly can be a lot of people, especially on the interstate, if hail is happening, they all like to stop underneath the overpass to try to protect their cars, um, which is incredibly dangerous. I've watched a few people give interviews about it. And anytime that a car is stopped on the highway is just a recipe for disaster. It is just a car, you know, like you want your car to be repaired safely and you want to feel safe in your car, but the potential of getting in a significant accident if you're just stopped is, you know, take the dents.

Pop Up Hail Repair And Rust Risks

SPEAKER_02 8:34

And then diving a little bit into like when vehicles are actually repairable from um from hail damage. We haven't had this up in our area for a while, but there's a lot of the kind of travel by night um companies that will, you know, pop up a tent in a parking lot and you can get your vehicle hail repair here completed. And God, they're even gonna cover your deductible. I would just caution people against those because whether or not they're doing calibrations is unknown. They don't necessarily have the capability or the contacts for a reputable body shop, should any of the work not just be paintless stent repair? And a lot of paintless stent repair that I have seen should not have been done. I think that we had done a podcast one time about um, you know, when something is good for paintless dent repair and when it's not. And I have seen where, you know, it's not gonna happen with aluminum. It might crack out your paint, but but it's typically not gonna rust if they crack your paint and create these little micro fissures with the paintless dent repair on a dent that shouldn't be repaired that way. However, um, if it's on a steel panel, I wish I had a photo of it. There was a vehicle that clearly had had um paintless dent repair done on the roof one time, and it was a steel roof, and the entire thing had perfect circles of rust, like all over the roof, I think six years after it had been repaired. Um yeah, and so it's it's things that you might not see right when you get your car back. You might not even see it for a few years, but if the company doesn't offer a warranty or or doesn't really have a great reputation, you might just kind of be stuck with now a super duper rusty roof. I think it's just important that people really consider where they're going um and and what type of repair they're expecting to get back.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, absolutely. I this is great advice, and um thank you for warning the people as we're in the midst of uh the threat of hail now. And as you mentioned, you know, when we were talking before the recording, too, that's it's coming back later this summer.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Hail is scary. Wow. Today could be a couple of very interesting days. So biggest thing of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I hope you guys are safe too, all of you over there at Aussies.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Yeah, yeah. Oh gosh, that's always one of my fears, but yes, oh man, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

But uh yeah, thanks for teaching us though, preparing us. So we appreciate you. Always a pleasure to be with you. You too. Thank you. Thanks.

How To Reach Ozzy’s Body Shop

SPEAKER_00 11:13

You've been listening to Crash Course, the Aussies Body Shop show with Megan Mueller, serving auto owners all across northern Colorado with certified family-owned collision care. If your vehicle's had a rough day, or you just want repairs done right the first time. For more information, visit OzzyBodyShop.com or call 970-667-7849. Ozzy's Body Shop. To be the best, you gotta be the best. On the road and in the repair bay. Until next time, drive safe. And if life dents it, you know where to send it.