I picked up a topper off marketplace a couple weeks ago and yesterday made the mistake of pulling into my garage with the lid open which ripped out a couple of rivets from the hinge and bent the window frame.

i pulled the entire door assembly off and disassembled it. This required drilling out a couple pop rivets holding the frame on and several rivets holding the door to the hinge. I was able to get to the bent frame piece and realistically all I have to do is bend is mostly straight and reassemble everything... but bending it straight is proving to be more challenging than I had initially anticipated.

Bas anyone here fixed a bent frame like this? I used a large c clamp to attach a 2x4 to it to attempt to straighten it out but there really isn't a good surface for the clamp to sit on and it would come off if I added any significant pressure. I am struggling to get leverage to bend this piece at all.

I don't know the make or model of the topper either, there's no markings, but is this a piece that can perhaps be bought from a manufacturer?

 

Yeah, its been many a year ago but, I bought a very light weight body hammer, made a wooden buck to match the general shape and slowly by hand and with a hammer massaged it back where it needed to be.

 

Like Beechkid said. Or contact the manufacturer or others that carry used to see if you can just get a replacement. I would fill the drilled out holes in, if in the fiberglass, with epoxy and redrill maybe one diameter size larger rivet, but hard to tell not seeing where the rivets are located, if they are in the fiberglass or go all the way through, etc.

 

im not sure who the manufacturer is unfortunately

 

I took an old ikea bed frame I was taking to the dump and cut it to size. I then screwed the frame into the wood, pushing down the bent end so it would screw in.

this did help, once I removed the screws the bend is about half as bad as it was. If I can get it straight enough to be able to force it to reassemble I'll be happy. If I can figure out a way to apply steady downward pressure, I'd screw it down so the bend is hanging off the lumber and crank down. Maybe I need to go buy another giant C clamp

 

i got the bend about 95% out. I screwed it to the bed frame with the bent portion hanging off, clamped the bed frame to my bench on the opposite end, then grabbed the very end of the bent side with one hand and pushed down on the bend with my other.

I straightened it out side to side in a similar manner. Again, about 95% solution. I riveted the hinge back on and had to drill a couple new rivet holes and use a small c clamp to get it to stay aligned properly. I bought a $5 rivet tool from harbor freight that came with a bunch of rivets and it worked perfectly for this task. I'm done for tonight but when I go back out there I will put the window back on and rivet in the bottom of the window frame.

One thing I noticed tonight is that one of the mounts for the piston on the door frame (not the bent window frame) is offset - looks like it had been damaged in the past and the previous owner hadn't or couldn't fully drill out the top rivet, so instead he used the 2nd and 3rd rivet hole as the 1st and 2nd, and drilled another hole to rivet it in place. It sits about an inch lower than the other one. I may attempt to fully remove the original rivet and drill out the other two and move it back to where it belongs. I thought the door had opened funky during the brief period I owned it before I damaged it... so maybe I can fix it too.