Fender struts bent!!

[schwinnless]

Ok, any suggestions on how to straiten these without screwing them up more?

Was thinking about a metal rod in curvature and pounding(lightly!!) it strait.

Yes, no, mabey so?

Hopefully i get a responce, last 2 questions went unanswerd!

 

[menzorro]

Sounds right. You need to get a solid piece of rod that fits the inside of the strut as close to perfect as possible. Lowe's Builders have some rod available.
Be sure to heat the strut (and not the rod) with a propane tourch because they don't get so hot that you could ruin the strut.
With the strut laying on a flat surface, GENTLY tap the rod that is inside the heated strut,reheat if necessary. Several light taps are way better than one larger hit.
By doing most of your hitting on the rod you will avoid more damage to the strut.
Then as always it will take sanding and possibly some filler to get a smooth strut.

 

[schwinnless]

Thank you sir!!

 

[Iron Horse]

I have had good luck using a smooth jawed vice to hold just infront of a bend and using my 12 inch crescent to cold bend them back into shape (this works especially well with twists) before using the hammer and dolly (rod) to keep metal stretch from hammering to a minimum.

 

[BlackJack]

One of the fender stays on the rear fender I bought had an S-curve in it. The stay bends easier outward toward the rounded convex side. I just put my left hand with fingers to the immediate left of the center of the bend and pulled up with my right hand and it bent fine. For the part that was bent inwards toward the concave direction I put a piece of 2 X 4 diagonally so that a point is under where I needed to bend then put my hands on either side and pushed down on the RH side. You may have to repeat either action a few times but it's pretty straight. Then I used an adjustable wrench to line up the axle tab in line with the rest of the stay. This was on a heavy gauge '50s fender stay.