After a hail storm in DFW: what to do in the first 48 hours, in order.

Document the car where it sits, before you move it, wash it or touch anything. Everything else in the next two days is easier if the first hour is done properly, and almost nothing else in the next two days is genuinely urgent.

Wait until the storm has fully passed. Then photograph in a fixed order so nothing is missed: one wide shot of the whole vehicle in place, then the roof, the bonnet and the boot lid, then the tops of the wings and the door sills, then glass, lamps, mirrors and trim. Horizontal panels carry most hail damage and most of the evidence.

Photograph the stones as well. A handful on the driveway next to a coin, a ruler or a key establishes what fell at your address on that date, which is exactly what gets questioned weeks later. Add the odometer and the VIN plate to the set.

Shoot in flat light. Early morning or late afternoon, at a low angle along the panel rather than straight down. Midday sun genuinely hides hail dents, and a set of photos taken at noon can make a badly damaged roof look fine.

Then note the date and time, and save a screenshot of the radar or the local weather report for that storm. Storm date is one of the first things a carrier asks about.

• Wide shot of the whole car, where it was parked.
• Roof, bonnet, boot lid, then wing tops and doors.
• Glass, lamps, mirrors, sunroof and trim.
• Close shots with a coin for scale on the worst dents.
• Odometer, VIN plate, stones on the ground, storm date.

Once the car is documented, and ideally within the first day or two, though your policy is the authority on its own reporting requirement. Sooner is better mainly because it ties the damage to a specific storm date while the evidence is fresh.

Check first what you carry. Hail is handled under comprehensive coverage, which is the weather-and-not-collision part of an auto policy. If you hold liability only, a hail claim generally will not apply, and it is better to know that before you open one. Your declarations page or a call to your agent settles it.

When you file, give them the storm date, the location where the vehicle was parked, and the photographs. Ask three questions and write the answers down: what your comprehensive terms are, whether your policy includes rental coverage, and how the carrier wants the vehicle inspected. Keep a note of the claim number, the adjuster's name and every date you spoke to someone.

Nobody outside your insurer can tell you how a claim will be decided or what it will do to your premium, and anyone who promises you an outcome is telling you something they cannot know. That question belongs to your agent.

Because the documents that circulate door to door after a storm are frequently not what they are described as. The most common is an authorisation or assignment that hands a company the right to deal with your insurer and to be paid directly, signed on a phone screen by someone who was told it was just permission for a free inspection.

The same visit often produces an agreement to proceed at a price to be determined later, or a contract with a cancellation penalty if the claim does not go the way the salesman predicted. None of it needs to be signed on the spot, and none of it becomes unavailable if you wait a day and read it at your kitchen table.

There is a simpler reason too. A knock at the door twelve hours after a storm means someone drove your street looking for damage, not that they have any relationship with you, your carrier or your car. That is not by itself dishonest, but it is not a reason to sign anything either.

Take a card, take a photograph of the vehicle they arrived in and its plate, and say you will call. Anyone legitimate is comfortable with that. Anyone who is not comfortable with that has told you what you needed to know.

By where they came from, how long they intend to stay, and what they will not put in writing. After a large North Texas hail event, out-of-state crews arrive within days, set up in a hotel car park or a leased retail lot, work the storm swath hard for a few weeks and are gone before the end of summer, along with any warranty they offered.

The signals are consistent. Out-of-state plates on the trucks. A temporary address, a tent, a folding table or a phone number with a distant area code. Pressure to decide today. An offer that is framed around your out-of-pocket cost rather than around the repair. No permanent local premises you could drive to in November. No verifiable local review history predating this storm.

None of that is illegal, and some travelling technicians are genuinely skilled. The problem is durability: a paintless dent repair warranty is worth precisely as much as the company's continued existence at an address you can reach, and hail repair problems tend to surface weeks later when the panel is seen in different light.

The test that works is boring and effective. Ask for a physical local address and look it up. Ask how long they have operated in the Metroplex. Ask whether the warranty is written, transferable and honoured locally. Then wait a day before deciding.

• A permanent Dallas–Fort Worth address you could visit next year.
• A written estimate that itemises the work rather than a single number.
• A written warranty, with the company that will honour it named on it.
• Insurance and bonding they will show you without hesitating.
• A review history that existed before this storm.
• No pressure to sign today, at all.

It looks unhurried, local and documented. It inspects the car properly before quoting, it writes down what it found, and it is comfortable with you taking the estimate away to think about.

A proper inspection is done with a light board rather than by eye in a car park, because that is the only way to read shallow hail dents reliably. It produces a panel-by-panel scope: how many dents, what size, which panels are paintless repair, which need paint, and what might turn up once trim comes off. That last item, the supplement, is normal on hail work and an operation that never mentions it has not done much of it.

You should also be told, in plain terms, who is actually doing the work, where the vehicle will be while it is being done, whether a rental is arranged, how long the shop expects to have it, and what the warranty covers. If any of those questions produces a vague answer, that is the answer.

Finally, a legitimate operation will tell you when repair is not the right call. Some cars are too old, too far gone or not covered, and saying so costs a sale. It is the clearest single signal you will get.

Time matters for safety, for weather exposure and for reporting. It does not matter nearly as much for choosing who repairs the car, and that is the pressure point every doorstep salesman leans on.

Genuinely time-sensitive: cracked or shattered glass, a broken sunroof, damaged lamps or anything else letting water into the cabin, especially with more storms in the forecast. Get glass covered or replaced and get the car under shelter. Also time-sensitive in a softer way is documenting the damage and reporting the claim, because both get harder to tie to a storm date as weeks pass.

Not time-sensitive: the repair booking itself. Shops are busy after a big event and the queue is real, but joining it a week later with a properly documented claim and a contractor you have checked out is a better position than joining it on day two with a contract you signed in your driveway.

Also not time-sensitive, despite what you will be told: deciding today to protect an availability slot, or accepting a first estimate that seems low. Low first estimates are common on hail because they are often written from photographs and miss dent density or damage found once trim is removed. That is answered with a documented teardown estimate, not with speed.