Our crews are deployed to Converse, Texas. If your vehicle was caught in the open on Thursday night, this is what to do next — and what not to do.
What happened
A severe thunderstorm moved across the east side of the San Antonio metro on the night of Thursday, September 10, 2026. Between roughly 10:00 and 10:20 p.m. the National Weather Service logged hail across Converse and the I-10 East corridor, topping out at 2.5 inches in diameter in Converse itself — tennis-ball size. Trained spotters reported 1 to 1.5 inch stones near Kirby, and 1 inch hail fell near St. Hedwig and China Grove.
If you have seen this storm dated September 11, that is the Weather Service's convective day, which runs noon to noon rather than midnight to midnight. The stones fell on the Thursday night.
The National Weather Service had warned the storm was capable of golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds up to 60 mph. At 10:25 p.m. the cell was sitting near China Grove, about seven miles northeast of Stinson Municipal Airport, tracking southwest at 15 mph. The warning was cancelled at 10:55 p.m. as the storm weakened.
By that point CPS Energy's outage map showed more than 1,900 customers without power across the affected area. Alongside Converse, the storm tracked over Kirby, China Grove, Lone Oak, St. Hedwig and parts of the central and eastern metro, and some locations picked up more than two inches of rain. Residents across Converse, the Northeast Side and the I-10 East corridor sent in photos of hailstones through the night.
A note on the numbers: some coverage of that week folded in figures from the separate late-August windstorm, which knocked out power to roughly 250,000 customers across San Antonio. That was a different event. The September 10 storm was smaller in footprint — but 2.5-inch hail is more than enough to dent every horizontal panel on a vehicle parked outside.
Converse sits in Bexar County, just northeast of San Antonio along the I-10 and Loop 1604 corridor, squarely inside the part of Texas that NOAA's Storm Prediction Center ranks among the highest severe-hail territory in the country. Statewide, activity peaks April through June and Texas averages 600–900 severe-hail reports a year — a September event is off-peak, which is exactly why so many vehicles were sitting uncovered.
First: don't rush to a body shop
The instinct after a storm is to drive to the nearest shop and get a number. Resist it for a day. Two things happen when a hail event hits a metro:
1. Local capacity fills within days. Every body shop in the area takes on more work than it can schedule, and your car joins a queue measured in weeks. 2. The first estimate is almost always low. Adjusters write curbside, in bad light, under time pressure. Re-inspected under proper PDR lighting, the dent count routinely comes back 30–60% higher.
Neither of those is a reason to panic. Both are reasons to slow down for twenty-four hours.
What to do right now
Photograph the vehicle before you move it. Wide shots of each panel, then close-ups of the roof, hood and trunk lid at a low angle so the dents catch the light. Get the windshield and any cracked trim.
File the claim, or don't — either is fine. Hail is a comprehensive claim, not an at-fault one, so in Texas it generally does not affect your premium the way an accident would. You can file first and bring us the claim number, or talk to us first and we will walk you through whether filing makes sense. You do not need an open claim to get an inspection.
Keep the check. When your carrier sends the estimate check, hold onto it. It stays with you through the entire repair. At pickup you endorse it to us — that is typically the whole transaction, with no separate invoice.
Don't accept a "we'll buff it out" quote. Hail dents are stretched sheet metal, not scratches. Anything that involves filler or repaint on a panel that could have been repaired with PDR permanently costs you resale value.
Why paintless dent repair matters here
PDR works the metal back from behind the panel with calibrated rods. No filler, no primer, no repaint — your factory finish stays on the car. That is the difference between a vehicle that shows clean at trade-in and one with repainted panels on its history.
Roughly 90% of hail damage qualifies. Where a stone actually cracked or stretched the paint, we escalate that panel to body and factory-match refinish, and we tell you which panels those are before any work starts.
What working with us looks like in Converse
Our shop is at 9747 Culebra Rd, Building 3 Unit 305, San Antonio. We come to the vehicle for the inspection and the repair happens at the shop, so your car stays in the area rather than being shipped somewhere else.
From there:
- Free in-person inspection under real PDR lighting. Photos aren't enough
— hail has to be seen in person to be scoped correctly.
- We handle the carrier. We file the supplement with line-item photos and
carrier-rate labor. You don't negotiate with your adjuster; we do.
- 3–7 days for most vehicles, plus a few days where panels need refinish.
If your policy is with GEICO or State Farm, expect extra time for their adjuster to re-inspect in person before a supplement is approved.
- Guaranteed $0 additional out of pocket. We absorb the
comprehensive deductible as part of our pricing, so the carrier's check covers the repair. We confirm exactly what applies to your policy at intake.
- Lifetime warranty on the work, for as long as you own the vehicle.
If you manage a lot
Dealerships and fleets in the Converse and northeast San Antonio area: we set up mobile bays on your property and work the inventory unit by unit, frontline retail first. Nothing leaves your lot and nothing goes on a transport invoice.
Hail damage in Converse? Call (210) 791-8505 and we will get you on the schedule while our crews are in the area.
Storm details from the National Weather Service warning and CPS Energy outage reporting for the night of September 10, 2026, as covered by KSAT and local reporting on the severe thunderstorm warning. Texas hail climatology from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center.