How resilient were early cars against hail storms?

I learned to drive on a 1954 Chevy BelAir. It was a tank. It had heavy steel as a body, not thin steel, aluminum or fiberglass. Hail might put a scratch on the paint, but the metal itself would have been difficult to dent.

Lemon sized hail beat my 2002 truck all to hell several years back. Some cars were so f’ed up as to be unrecognizable. Older road boats fared quite well except for the glass bits. If you had a newer Kia or something like it not so much.

In 1991, over 1000 Geo Storms were pummeled by a freak hail storm at the Port of Yokohama while awaiting shipment to the US. Most, if not all had the headlight covers smashed.

My personal experience is older cars fare better. A jelly mentioned a Kia above. I have a Kia and it is the flimsiest paint job I have ever had on a car. I noticed it right away. They must use fewer coats than most. I don’t know if it would dent more easily than other same year cars? It wouldn’t surprise me.

I named one car I drove back in the late 1980s ‘Dimples.”

It was a 1977 Oldsmobile cutlass, and a fairly classy car until then, About that time, the leather exterior began rotting away as well. I hate to think how my 2011 Toyota Corolla would do in a hailstorm.

Older cars were made of steel. Fairly thick gauge, too.

Newer cars are made of aluminum, a little steel, and composites.

I must agree totally with @elbanditoroso .