Posted by Dave Speed on Wednesday, December 26, 2001 at 7:17PM :
In Reply to: Straightening the top rails on FF bed side panels?? posted by EdC on Wednesday, December 26, 2001 at 2:49PM :
Ed -
If they aren't too munged up, I'd make a tapered plug (?mandrel) on the end of a 10' length of rebar, say a straight section that *just* fits about 4" long preceeded by a 3" section that starts out say .25" diam smaller with a rounded nose) Then try to "iron out" the dents by heating the dented area w a torch and ramming the rig up the middle. I did this with pretty fair success on some collapsed rectangular sections of my tailgate.
Actually, my bed rails were so deformed that I replaced them with 1.25" steel pipe welded in place after I took the considerable bow (strech) out of the bed. Not a concours winner, but a usable bed that passes the 50/50 test and will last another 50 years ...
Dave