Holden Frontera panel/body question (Hail Damage)

I have a Frontera but I had major hail damage to my wife's Ford. The body shop, who I trust, wanted to chop out the roof and replace it. The insurer, NRMA, said no, repair it. After the repair was done the NRMA agreed the roof was not satisfactory and agreed that the roof should be cut out and replaced. This was done and the job was superb.
All you have to keep in mind is the car is only made up of panels welded together. That is all the body shop will do. Weld in a new panel. The new panel will probably be seam welded where as the original was probably only spot welded and sealed. Structurally the car should be better. I am no expert but do have an MGB. I am presently replacing all the rusted panels. The major structural sill panels are all spot welded into place. The new ones will be seam welded. I think that this will be stronger.
Post a message later as to how you went because I understand replacement Frontera panels are hard to get.Richard and Leonie, The grey nomads.

Scotty,

That's fairly standard and on a Frontera it's less barbaric than it sounds.

My sister's VP Commodore had the same thing done back when it was damaged in Sydney's hailstorm of 1999 and the result was fine. That is true chop and replace.

With a lot of modern cars, including the Frontera, the roof panel nearly about slides in to place. Not so sure about replacing the whole turret though.

Does your insurer guarantee the work? This should help you with peace of mind.

The trade of panel beating died years ago, when it became cheaper to import shonky panels from Tawian and other countries. Gone are the days of actually beating out damage on the panels, its far cheaper, quicker and easier to bolt on new ones.

Had HEAPS of mates in Sydney, 2 were genuine old school, that could physically MAKE panel shapes out of sheet, Pat James, actually made sections for his old Val to replace rust as he hates using BOG.... and the rest were Replace and Removers...

Shame no-one wants to take the time to shrink and re-form the metal in the roof to take out the dints, full roof replacements are common though, they usually stagger the cuts on the pillars and seam weld the joins etc. Shame the interior has to be stripped out , so make sure the job has a full lifetime warranty as you are bound to end up with a heap of new rattles and marks inside. Also check that they will re-spray the whole car not just sections, and make sure they don't just do the clear overcoat on the older panels. I assume the quotes are substantial, about 8k or so ?? Best advise, get fixed and about 6 months later, trade her on something 'virginal'.Moo... everyone knows what a Jackaroo looks like :-)