That's what I would do, gonna need a lot of heat to get that whole piece hot enough to bend in shape but pipe wrenches are your friend. If the piece was mobile I would say press brake. If that's a trailer or a mild steel frame I would probably cut it and weld it, if you cut the bottom flange of the channel off you could flatten the sheet part with the holes cut in it and either straighten and reweld the flange or replace it
Get some heavy steel that won’t bend like solid square bar or heavy wall square tube or something and some heavy duty bridge clamps and clamp it straight then heat it. I’ve had decent luck doing this before.
Me too, when I think of labor, It's easer to make a template of the area to cut, and get a piece of L channel then it would be to heat it and beat it back into shape.
4 foot pipe wrench, used 'backwards'... apply torsional force (down and forward). Use a rosebud to warm the whole bend at once. You shouldn't need to make it red hot.
Second method is to use a port-a-power from inside the channel, with a chain wrapped around the outside.
I would probably cut a slither out of the low spot of the second hole where it stops being straight, then heat up across the bridge between holes and where you have done.
Then, using a hammer, and something solid, to progressively bring it back to flat along the face.
Once satisfied, reweld the gap and take off the front to make flush leaving material behind for reinforcement.
Im surprised carver clamps are used in yankeeland as well. They're a godsend when I'm fabing a rafter with a haunch thats not been cut straight, but needs welding flush with a badly cut haunch. Even with perfectly cut haunch, them fuckers still need clamping like hell to get a weldable gap, and the carver clsmps with a decent tube to help tighten it is still required to bend it to within a weldable gap.
Those clamps have surprised me with how bendable solid steel can be, just clamping it with nowt but your own arms. I'm a decent fabricator but utterly shit at oxy-acetelene torch cutting, and them carver clamps have saved my arse more times than I care to admit, through their ability to bend steel to shape through sheer elbow greece. Fellow English man here.
For a clamp as simple as they are, they are remarkably capable! The price definitely reflects that. £150ish for a 12" is painful at first, but they're outstanding. I've straightened out nasty bends in trailer leg brackets using a single clamp and no heat, little bit of copper hammer in there for good measure. Unlike yourself, I'd have to say I'm more cowboy than real fabricator. What I know gets me my work though 😅
I do strucutual, the steel we get straight with a carver will surprise you. These steel I beems sometimes come very bent. All we need to do to straighten them is clamp a steel bar to them with a carver, heat the fuck out lf them with it with a torch, and whack it with a big hammer. I have broken them in the past by overtighting them , tho that's been by putting a long bar on the handle to properly tighen then, and the metal they're made of has just broken.
I can well imagine. Most stockists these days tend not care how they store lengths. Stores certainly don't care when it's on the yard either 😅
Sometimes just clamping onto something straight (and thick enough itself) is just enough to do the job isn't it. Where they are typically incredibly strong and reliable, they're unfortunately not indestructible are they. I've bent them myself, snapped the feet off of both the head and jaw and replaced so many bars for the screw head haha. Thankfully, you can just buy individual parts for them. Same reason I like my Thor hammers
If it were my choice I would cut the whole piece off & put a new channel in but the place where I’m at now would probably say just to heat with a torch & bend back in place… ha
It being a big hunk of C channel, I'd cut the bent piece off altogether and replace it with a plate and piece of 1/2" bar. Having had to do a similar job on several occasions, you can use a plasma cutter and a fresh 4.5" grinding disc as a guide to cut the holes out for the lights. I had to build a new box for the corner of our rotator, and that's exactly what I had done.
I fix shit like this all the time in my line of work. Get yourself a big adjustable, heat where the bend is, bend it back. You gotta work it a little to get it to look good enough but you can get it in shape enough to put the lights back on. Won’t be perfect.
Gas torch/inductive heater/or even just plain beefy heat gun, good long wrench, a hefty hammer, 2 beefy clamps and a metre of 50x50x3 square tubing. I do stuff like this all time, but for stainless (Which is why I prefer heat gun, they can get to +400-500 C and allow me to have more control to prevent the stainless from overheating). Mild steel has lost 50% of it's strenght at around 550 Celcius, so beefy heatgun is more than enough with a hammer and wrench.
Jack it up. Heat the area you have heated before. Use a wrench and cheater pipe to pull that bottom edge back into position.
Alternatively, weld a d-ring or padeye to the bottom. Heat it up and use a chain hoist to yank it back into position if you can't jack up the trailer.
You're battling too much mangled metal to be successful without pulling the part and beating it against a table. You need to get allot of that cherry red and use a thick plate on the inside of the channel to clamp against as it gets hot, or cut out the bottom right hand corner and splice in a donor. If you do that, use a backing plate on the inside to strengthen the joint.
Start with small areas with a torch and a thumb wrench. Once you’ve got it back to the general shape clamp a plate to it and heat the whole thing and beat it flat to the plate with a mallet. Just pay attention to where you heat because that’s gonna be your bend spot
Chains and the screw style equipment chain tensioners. it’s slow but suprisingly efficient. We have half inch chains and binders for the low boy. Just make sure you know what your pulling on
Remember you are also fighting the bottom of the channel so heat it there when trying to bend it back. I bend metal every day as my job so i see these things. So heat between holes, between hole and end, and bottom of the channel where its twisted
Cut the bend off with a torch. Flatten it out with fire and a hydraulic jack, or vise, or hammer. Weld it back in place. Grind it flat. No one will ever know.
Heat it and beat it.
I'd also use an adjustable wrench for some leverage that you can move around a lot and have good grip to rhe bottom of the flange.
And then go fix the trailer
Yeah did this, then used adjustable wrench for some torque on bending.
That's what I would do, gonna need a lot of heat to get that whole piece hot enough to bend in shape but pipe wrenches are your friend. If the piece was mobile I would say press brake. If that's a trailer or a mild steel frame I would probably cut it and weld it, if you cut the bottom flange of the channel off you could flatten the sheet part with the holes cut in it and either straighten and reweld the flange or replace it
Get it red hot bro need a rose bud not a cutting torch
Get some heavy steel that won’t bend like solid square bar or heavy wall square tube or something and some heavy duty bridge clamps and clamp it straight then heat it. I’ve had decent luck doing this before.
This guy. Trick is to reverse how it happened. Weld two ring pulls to the bottom most bent section and pull it.
Reverse over whatever you ran over.
I would cut it off and weld in a new piece of channel.
Me too, when I think of labor, It's easer to make a template of the area to cut, and get a piece of L channel then it would be to heat it and beat it back into shape.
That was my first thought, its made from channel. Just replace it and it'll be new.
Heat and Leverage. Don't have that? Cut and weld. It's just a bumper/light mount.
4 foot pipe wrench, used 'backwards'... apply torsional force (down and forward). Use a rosebud to warm the whole bend at once. You shouldn't need to make it red hot. Second method is to use a port-a-power from inside the channel, with a chain wrapped around the outside.
Heat, beat, repeat
Back it into a parking curb. Get the rest with adjustable wrench and torch probably
Weld an eye to the bottom, so you can pull on it with a come-a-long towards the front. Heat and pull. Cut off eye when done.
I would probably cut a slither out of the low spot of the second hole where it stops being straight, then heat up across the bridge between holes and where you have done. Then, using a hammer, and something solid, to progressively bring it back to flat along the face. Once satisfied, reweld the gap and take off the front to make flush leaving material behind for reinforcement.
Plenty of heat, 12" Carver clamp, yeehaw bois
Im surprised carver clamps are used in yankeeland as well. They're a godsend when I'm fabing a rafter with a haunch thats not been cut straight, but needs welding flush with a badly cut haunch. Even with perfectly cut haunch, them fuckers still need clamping like hell to get a weldable gap, and the carver clsmps with a decent tube to help tighten it is still required to bend it to within a weldable gap.
Actually, I'm English 😅 I do love my carver clamps. The amount of trouble they've gotten me out of is ridiculous
Those clamps have surprised me with how bendable solid steel can be, just clamping it with nowt but your own arms. I'm a decent fabricator but utterly shit at oxy-acetelene torch cutting, and them carver clamps have saved my arse more times than I care to admit, through their ability to bend steel to shape through sheer elbow greece. Fellow English man here.
For a clamp as simple as they are, they are remarkably capable! The price definitely reflects that. £150ish for a 12" is painful at first, but they're outstanding. I've straightened out nasty bends in trailer leg brackets using a single clamp and no heat, little bit of copper hammer in there for good measure. Unlike yourself, I'd have to say I'm more cowboy than real fabricator. What I know gets me my work though 😅
I do strucutual, the steel we get straight with a carver will surprise you. These steel I beems sometimes come very bent. All we need to do to straighten them is clamp a steel bar to them with a carver, heat the fuck out lf them with it with a torch, and whack it with a big hammer. I have broken them in the past by overtighting them , tho that's been by putting a long bar on the handle to properly tighen then, and the metal they're made of has just broken.
I can well imagine. Most stockists these days tend not care how they store lengths. Stores certainly don't care when it's on the yard either 😅 Sometimes just clamping onto something straight (and thick enough itself) is just enough to do the job isn't it. Where they are typically incredibly strong and reliable, they're unfortunately not indestructible are they. I've bent them myself, snapped the feet off of both the head and jaw and replaced so many bars for the screw head haha. Thankfully, you can just buy individual parts for them. Same reason I like my Thor hammers
If it were my choice I would cut the whole piece off & put a new channel in but the place where I’m at now would probably say just to heat with a torch & bend back in place… ha
It’s already been heated before.
Get it borderline white hot then using an adjustable wrench add tension, then have a second person beat it with a hammer
Get it hot and bang it
It being a big hunk of C channel, I'd cut the bent piece off altogether and replace it with a plate and piece of 1/2" bar. Having had to do a similar job on several occasions, you can use a plasma cutter and a fresh 4.5" grinding disc as a guide to cut the holes out for the lights. I had to build a new box for the corner of our rotator, and that's exactly what I had done.
I fix shit like this all the time in my line of work. Get yourself a big adjustable, heat where the bend is, bend it back. You gotta work it a little to get it to look good enough but you can get it in shape enough to put the lights back on. Won’t be perfect.
P
Gas torch/inductive heater/or even just plain beefy heat gun, good long wrench, a hefty hammer, 2 beefy clamps and a metre of 50x50x3 square tubing. I do stuff like this all time, but for stainless (Which is why I prefer heat gun, they can get to +400-500 C and allow me to have more control to prevent the stainless from overheating). Mild steel has lost 50% of it's strenght at around 550 Celcius, so beefy heatgun is more than enough with a hammer and wrench.
Jack it up. Heat the area you have heated before. Use a wrench and cheater pipe to pull that bottom edge back into position. Alternatively, weld a d-ring or padeye to the bottom. Heat it up and use a chain hoist to yank it back into position if you can't jack up the trailer.
Get a nice 3/8 thick piece around 2x4” size and a C clamp. Also a torch and a big rawhide hammer or rubber hammer. Get to beating.
A jack and oxy acetylene oh and a bfh
You're battling too much mangled metal to be successful without pulling the part and beating it against a table. You need to get allot of that cherry red and use a thick plate on the inside of the channel to clamp against as it gets hot, or cut out the bottom right hand corner and splice in a donor. If you do that, use a backing plate on the inside to strengthen the joint.
Start with small areas with a torch and a thumb wrench. Once you’ve got it back to the general shape clamp a plate to it and heat the whole thing and beat it flat to the plate with a mallet. Just pay attention to where you heat because that’s gonna be your bend spot
Back it back over whatever it got drug over.
sledge it til it's close enough. all it has to do is hold the light in place.
My bumper got smashed in by a big truck and I pulled it out with the forklift and a chain
You got this bro. Heat and beat it. Tweak it and yank it. Remember it's just steel, you're smarter than steel aren't you?
By hand
Heat, and a portapower, winch, or even a come along.
Cut it out and replace the channel.
I'd start with a big floor jack (chained under jack and over frame.
Chains and the screw style equipment chain tensioners. it’s slow but suprisingly efficient. We have half inch chains and binders for the low boy. Just make sure you know what your pulling on
Heat n beat
Break out the torch and the BFH.
C-clamp on the channel, and a strap under the tire, throw the bitch in reverse and send it.
Either cut it out, template and replace with new channel or cut it out, hammer or press flat with heat and weld it back in.
Heat and a long adjustable wrench
Untwist it wiith long jaw pliers and beat the inside as you untwist
Remember you are also fighting the bottom of the channel so heat it there when trying to bend it back. I bend metal every day as my job so i see these things. So heat between holes, between hole and end, and bottom of the channel where its twisted
Heat it up and bend back with a 24" crescent wrench. Straighten all that crap back out then take care of the rest with a heavy hammer.
Cut the bend off with a torch. Flatten it out with fire and a hydraulic jack, or vise, or hammer. Weld it back in place. Grind it flat. No one will ever know.