SPECIALIST ‘storm-chasers’ from Portugal have been working their magic to repair dozens of vehicles damaged by hailstones earlier this month.

Car repair and recovery firm Macadams, of North Valley Road, Colne, had around 60 cars booked in with numerous dents to the bodywork following hailstorms two weeks ago.

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Some of the vehicles had as many as 150 areas of damage on the roof panel alone due to the bad weather, which struck after high temperatures.

Normally such incidents would have meant expensive replacement panels but insurance companies have paid for the unique skills of Portuguese technician Jose Paulo Da Silva to prevent that course of action.

He uses a method called Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) which consists of repairing dents of various sizes and shapes, without the need to paint the affected area.

Paulo, as he is known, follows hail patterns throughout the world so whenever there is a bad hailstorm and lots of damage expected, he and his team are there to assist.

He has recently worked as far away as Australia and the USA.

Paul Embley, who works at Macadams’ body shop, said the techniques were ‘unbelievable’ and left the vehicles’ bodywork ‘as good as new’.

He added: “We’ve had around 60 vehicles booked in which were badly damaged by hailstones.

“A lot of them were from the Keighley area; one garage forecourt had all their cars damaged in minutes.

“One of the estimators counted 150 dents on one panel alone and that was typical.

“It’s been unbelievable to see the Portuguese lads work.

“It’s like magic, I simply don’t know how they do it.

“They use little rods and suction to correct the damage and the results mean the bodywork is back to new.

“They go all over the world following bad weather.

“I’ve heard of storm chasers but I’m calling them after-storm chasers.”

PDR is the craft of re-modelling the metal panel until it reverts perfectly to its original shape.

Depending on the skill and experience of those who execute it, the technique allows PDR repairs to areas of extreme damage, sometimes in minutes.

The technique was developed by the technicians of car assembly lines to repair small deformations without the need to paint or sometimes even change the panel.