How to Price a Hail Repair Estimate: A Panel-by-Panel Guide

Accurate hail estimates are where PDR shops win or lose money. Under-price and you eat the loss; over-price and you lose the job. Here's the practical, panel-by-panel method pros use to quote a whole car in minutes — and price it consistently every time.

Step 1 — Walk the car and identify damaged panels

Hail rarely hits every panel evenly. Start by identifying which panels actually have damage. The usual suspects, top-down:

• Bonnet / hood
• Roof (often the worst — flat and exposed)
• Left & right doors (front and rear)
• Left & right quarter panels
• Boot / tailgate

Good lighting matters. A PDR light board or even angled sunlight reveals dents you'll otherwise miss — and missed dents are missed dollars.

Step 2 — Count dents and group them by severity

For each panel, count the dents and sort them into severity tiers. Most shops use three:

Severity drives your per-dent price, so counting accurately by tier is the core of a fair estimate.

Step 3 — Apply your rate matrix

A rate matrix is simply your price-per-dent for each severity level. For example, a shop might use $22/light, $34/moderate, $52/severe. Multiply the dent count on each panel by the rate for that severity:

Step 4 — Add the modifiers (this is where shops leave money)

Raw dent count isn't the whole story. Real-world PDR pricing includes upcharges for the things that make a repair harder:

• R&I (Remove & Install) — trim, headliners, or parts that must come off to access dents.
• Glue-pull — for dents you can't reach from behind.
• Edge damage — dents on panel edges take longer.
• Body-line dents — dents on a crease/character line are far tougher.
• Aluminium panels — aluminium behaves differently and usually carries an upcharge.
• Oversized roofs — large panels take more time.

Skipping these is the #1 reason shops under-bill. On insurance work especially, every legitimate operation should be captured.

Step 5 — Total, add tax, and present professionally

Sum every panel, add your modifiers, apply tax (or GST for Australian shops), and produce a clean, itemised estimate with your logo. A professional-looking estimate builds trust with the customer — and moves faster with adjusters.

Do it in minutes, not hours

Doing all of this on a paper matrix or spreadsheet is slow and error-prone — especially during a busy storm with a lot of cars. Modern PDR software does the math for you: tap the panels on a car diagram, set dent count and severity, and it prices each panel from your rate matrix instantly, modifiers included.

That's exactly how the Storm-Ops panel-by-panel estimator works — quote a whole car in about 90 seconds, then it saves straight into a versioned estimate you can print or send.