HUNTER panel beater Hayden Gillon planned to head on a family holiday just after Christmas.
Instead, he spent Wednesday morning assessing more than 120 hail-damaged cars, equating to about a year's worth of work.
"We try and push everything out that we can without paint work but some of the [damage today] is extremely bad and has already cracked the paint," Mr Gillon said.
"For those, we have to repair it, prime it and paint it. It is a bit of a process."
His team at Hunter Valley Smash Repairs began early. A line of people gathering in the balmy heat started at 7am. By 10am, it was well out the front gate of the Rutherford business.
Heritage Parc resident Danae Robertson had to take the day off work to bring several cars in. She spent more than three hours in line during what was a "stressful" day.
Amongst five cars damaged in her yard was a month-old Subaru and a vehicle that was not insured because of sky-rocketing cost of living.
Her father-in-law's cars and two work vehicles also took a beating.
"It is stressful at this point in time. We can't afford a lot of things and we had to sacrifice the use of one of our cars during this time because we just can't afford to insure it. The brand new cars [was] a bit of a hit to the heart strings," she said.
Solar panels on Ms Robertson's house also took a beating - an expense insurance may not cover. She must wait until mid-January to find out, following Christmas breaks.
"A lot of places are closed ," Ms Robertson said. "We just have to wait and see. It's all just a waiting game now."
Despite the loss, Ms Robertson said her community had banded together.
"We have a community Facebook page," she said. "It's been really good. There was a [man] who works for a glass company and he was offering to tape up people's windows after it happened.
"It's just a good sense of community here in this little area ... everyone is so lovely."
Ms Robertson and her partner Ben Thompson continued the community spirit by dropping off a gift for the smash repair team.
"It's a [hot] day and they didn't have to open," she said.
Windella resident Donna Plumridge was driving home from Maitland Bunnings when the onslaught of hail hit. She described the experience as "loud" and "scary" with what felt like "huge" hunks of ice falling onto the car.
Ms Plumridge ducked into a neighbouring shopping centre for cover.
Many Maitland locals spent the day patching up windows with plastic and other temporary solutions while they wait to hear from insurance companies.
An insurance expert said it could be Newcastle's largest hail event since 2006 and estimated up to $200 million worth of damages occurred.
It was a huge undertaking for local Special Emergency Service units, who answered a surge of calls in just over 24 hours.
"We had about 150 jobs from that one hail storm yesterday," Maitland SES unit commander Craig Parsons said.
"We've got about 60 jobs left to do, mainly around Rutherford and Aberglasslyn," he told the Newcastle Herald at about 1pm on December 27.
Crews from as far as Lake Macquarie, Gosford and Sydney came to help with the clean-up efforts.
"This morning we've had about 35 people [on the ground]. We have three more crews coming, so we will have about 50 people," Mr Parsons said at the time.
"We should be finished up hopefully tonight," he said. "Depending on what else we get. People are still coming home from their holidays and finding [damage]."
The most common job in Rutherford was sky light repairs. Some needed to be fixed twice after pressure ripped temporary plastic from the roof.
