Need to Repair Stainless Panel

[dale farley]

The panel under the front of my bus needs some straigntening. Each end is bent rather badly. Can I do this with a piece of wood and rubber mallet? I prefer it looks better when I finish than when I start.

Of course, I know I have a couple other options: I could fly Harry out and get him to show me how to do this, or I could buy a new panel that says "Liberty Coach".

[jonnie]

Dale,

You could send it to Harry with a little consideration.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dale,

The metal is stretched. Using backing and some dent removal tools you can minimize what you see, but will have to sand it with progressively finer grits prior to repolishing the metal. It will take a while but it can be made to look almost perfect.

As an alternative you can seek a metal shop near you that has a press brake and some flatening dies. They will help flatten the piece leaving only a minimal amount of refinishing.

You are almost a shoe-in for the Wide Turn award if you keep this up.

[dale farley]

Jon, Most of this was done before I bought the bus. I just made it a little worse. The door piece and the white post are a different story.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I think this year's recipients tried to tell us that also, but they still won the award.

[garyde]

I have had good luck with the Dent repair people, paintlss repair dentxpert

[dale farley]

This is the poor man's way of doing it. Since I already had my trailer hooked up to the truck for a hay ride tomorrow night, I decided to use it as a staging area for the repair. I had to use a come-a-long to prevent pushing the sides of the trailer outward when extending the hydraulic ram.

It's certainly not perfect, but it looks so much better than before. Harry probably wouldn't approve, but it was the best I could do with what little knowledge I have. The last picture is the end result.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Dale a blind man on a galloping horse would be glad to see it

Well done!

[dalej]

Dale, it looks great, but you know we will look closely next time there's a get together.

[dale farley]

Maybe I'll take it off and put it in the bay the next time we get together. If Joe brings his blind man, I'll let him see. Unfortunately, it probably does not look as good as the picture, but it still looks a whole lot better than before.