When a storm rolls across Bell County, thousands of vehicles get hit in the same twenty minutes. Everyone calls their insurance and every shop's schedule fills at once. What you do in the first day puts you at the front of that line or the back of it.
1. Photograph everything before you touch it
Walk around the vehicle and take photos of every panel, the roof, the hood, and all the glass, in daylight if you can. Dents photograph best at an angle. These photos protect you if anything is questioned later, and they let a shop give you a real assessment over the phone.
2. If glass is broken, cover it, do not drive it
A shattered or badly cracked windshield is a safety problem, not a cosmetic one. Tape plastic sheeting over broken side glass to keep rain out, and have the vehicle looked at before you put miles on it.
3. Get in a repair queue early
- Call your insurer to open the claim, or call us first, either order works
- Hail goes through comprehensive coverage, so it generally does not raise your rates the way an at-fault accident would
- Shops book out fast after a storm, and an early call beats a perfect one
4. Be careful with door-to-door storm chasers
After every big Central Texas hail event, out-of-town crews appear on doorsteps offering fast repairs, then leave town before warranty questions start. A simple filter: does the company have a local address you can drive to a year from now? We are on Main Street in Belton, year round.
5. Handle the glass and the dents together
Hail that dents the hood usually chips or cracks glass too. Handling both in one claim, with one shop, means one deductible conversation and one timeline. If a new windshield is involved, make sure camera recalibration is part of the job, because your lane-keep and emergency-braking systems depend on it.