My Si got hammered in a hail storm (leaving dozens of dents) in the summer of '09. While it was at the shop getting the paintless dent removal, the guy tripped over a light stand, and it fell against the car and slid down the side. So the one whole side needed to be painted anyway.
I was thinking about your old golf ball car as I was driving the flooded streets of Greensboro trying to get to a semi flooded I-40 to head back to Raleigh. Each second I sat waiting for traffic to clear, or waiting for a light to change had me worried about another soaked air filter. Thankfully that was not my fate today, and I made it back unscathed, with no cels, limp mode, or hail.