Last Wednesday, one of the more comprehensive thunderstorms occurred during Natalie's Zoom watercolor class. I had intended to cover her car, which was parked on the street, with a blanket to protect it from hail damage, but that was what I did, so I delayed everything. (b) When the marble-sized hailstones began to fall, it began to fall. One of them broke in two, and both pieces hit me as I cowered in my pouch.
I don't think hail dents are as big a problem as they once were. Auto body shops, like airplanes, have learned how to take out hail dents. This requires significant labor and/or some expensive machinery to temporarily generate the mother of all magnetic fields through the recessed area.
Well, the storm has weakened and Natalie's Honda is undamaged. But her Zoom watercolor classes were widespread, and everyone was worried about the weather. Thus we were informed that the sky had darkened at Circleville, about 25 miles to the west.
So I brought two blankets that I don't use often and spread them over the hood, roof, and trunk lid. I went inside again and found some Harbor Freight welding magnets to hold the blankets in place, and that's when I realized the hood was plastic. This stuff doesn't dent, so I rearranged the holddown, added a sizable chunk of sandstone to the trunk, and added a half-filled 5-gallon bucket to the roof.
Natalie says most of the hail damage should be covered by insurance, but my 1964 Econoline van is taking up space in her garage and she's still waiting for a working fuel line. So I feel responsible. Once I get it running, I plan to back this precious vehicle out of the garage and give it its first wash since. Then I rinse off the paint thinner and apply probably the 6th coat.
It was light blue at first, then repainted black when it changed to what someone thought was a “hippie van”, then I gave it two coats of aluminum paint (15 years apart), and finally It turned out to be a disastrous paint job for the Ford Blue Farm. Implement painting. Aluminum paint worked best, so he bought a gallon of Krylon and a new spray gun.
We are waiting for Storm 2.0 and we just heard thunder.
Mark Kinsler (kinsler33@gmail.com) lives with Natalie and her cats in a small old house that was hit by a storm. It seems that research published in graduate school has made me a grizzled lightning expert. You might think that would help during a storm, but it doesn't. Please stay safe.