Hi, looking for some inspiration. A few months ago the wife wiped out a deer with our 4x4, and aside from the bumper, the bull bar took a whack ( and saved a fair bit of damage I reckon) but got itself a bit of a dink in the rear of the tube. Brackets will straighten, as will that flat bit on the front, and I’ll likely paint it black. Question is, I’d like to try and remove the dink in the tube if I can. It’s stainless and 1.5mm thick tube. do you think there’s any fixing and how would you approach it? It was pretty expensive. Fully CE certified, looked much better than the cheaper ones on eBay, and is roughly 300 to replace
Weld a bolt to it, slide hammer it out. Polish it up. Unless it's at the end of a straight length and you can get a tail pipe expander up there or drive in a round tapered lump of alloy and leave it in there afterwards? It fill it with water, cap the ends, chuck it in a chest freezer and pray.
hmmm. Both ends are 60mm open tube. It crossed my mind, but I would probably need to weld both ends closed. Not sure if the 8bar from a compressor would have the oomph. There’s a though. I was thinking weld a bolt on and pull, but the end is open where I could fit something the correct shape internally, thread it through the hole and slide hammer it
you got a pressure washer? weld the ends shut attach the pressure washer to one end, heat up the dent and switch the pressure washer on. trust me, you'll only need it on for a few seconds!
capping the ends would give me a few options, but don’t think it’s worth that. welding to external just makes me thing it will never get near to straight again. Maybe some heat would help with straightening?
Slide hammer would get the worst of that out easily. Tack a bit of flat where the dent is and attact the hammer to that.
Yeah, you will likely have to pull in a few other places too though, downside is you pull too much and end up with hollows either side. Gently persuading the sides of the tube back with a mallet might help at the same time. It would be easier if it was thicker tube as you can pull it out and flatten it back and polish again.
I would probably cut out the dent and replace it with a let in patch from a piece of tube the same size, then polish it out, I did it with some 3" dia barriers in a food factory that had been hit with trollies and you couldn't see the join when finished.
AA badge, or GB sticker? I would try hydraulic pressure plus tapping around the edges at the same time, or air pressure and heat plus tapping, if you weld on to it and pull it won't go well, will be up in the middle and down around the rim, an island in a lake, ok if it were to be filled and painted but no good for polishing, worst way cut it out, reshape or make a patch, weld back in, polish,
Find a pipe with a decent wall that will fit inside it and beat it up the open end. I did some creased tent poles this way and they came out almost perfect. They could have been perfect if I had spent more time on them. Edit- Just seen it's round the bend so not an option for you
Yup, i've already done the passive aggressive bit. Made her drive around with a tie wrapped bumper for months also It is, and to be honest doesn't need to be fixed, but i keep looking at it every so often thinking surely it can easily be fixed. Its become the something i need prove (or disprove lol) rather than something that must be done!
