Bent Garage door

[Toxictom]

My daughter ran into my 16' x 7' garage door in her boyfriends 4 Runner.
I managed to take the door apart and flatten the panels as best I could and get it reinstalled to keep the weather out. The door now has an inward bow to it and a couple gaps (<1/2") between panels. I haven't tried opening it or winding the springs yet.
I don't want to replace the door at this time as I'm planning on getting a home improvement loan to redo my garage floor and driveway and add the cost of a garage door into that.
Does anyone have any suggestions to straighten the panels mor?. I was thinking of adding angle iron to each panel to try and align them better. Here are before and after pictures.

 

[PoorUB]

Oh my! She did good!

You did even better getting them somewhat straightened out!

You can buy stiffner rails for garage doors, just a light weight U bend with a screw flange on each leg of the U. You might need them to keep the door straight if you intend to open it.

Like this! But I sure would not pay that price for them! A local garage door company might have a couple used ones they may part with cheap.

 

[LeonardY]

You did a good job straightening them.
I wouldn't use angle iron. Something like a length of bent hat section would be better.
I know this is not what you asked.
I would weigh the cost of materials and time vs a new door. Maybe consider an upgrade to insulated.
Sometimes it's just not worth it to do all the fixes.

 

[vwpieces]

Nice job.
Both of ya.
Seriously, nice repair.

 

[CombatNinja]

Charge boyfriend for a new door. He might as well know what he's getting into.

 

[matt_i]

That is impressive. Very good job in fixing them! I'm of the belief that if you can do that kind of work you can order a new door and self-install with a little help to assemble the panels, which can cut your costs.

 

[flathead dave]

Have your daughter run into the back side...

You did a pretty good job fixing it.

 

[pizza]

try opening it by hand? lol

honestly, i'm impressed it looks as good as it does.

 

[finn]

Local garage door company will have the hat channels. They use them as stiffening ribs for openers.

They buy them by the carton, so shipping costs are spread across a couple dozen, which lowers their cost, and, hopefully, your price.

The one I bought was reasonably inexpensive at the time.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Looks pretty straight, if you’re replacing it anyway i would get some 1 x 1 steel angle to span the bent area. Temp fixed Many does like that, predrill and zip screw to door.

 

[nadogail]

The owner of the 4 Runner should make a claim on his insurance coverage. He is responsible for any damage caused by his vehicle.

 

[PassnThru]

The owner of the 4 Runner should make a claim on his insurance coverage. He is responsible for any damage caused by his vehicle.

Not sure about that - I think if someone else was driving it would be on their insurance - not his. Also if you push that then he might be giving you a bill for the damage to the 4Runner so......

 

[CombatNinja]

His car insurance is not going to cover damage to your property when done in your private driveway. It would be a homeowner's claim for the door and a comprehensive claim to the 4Runner (if it even has comp. coverage and the damage warrants fixing). The person who owes Dad a new door is the daughter. Assuming she is gainfully employed, I'd be telling her to pick up some extra shifts to cover the cost. Being held accountable for your lapses in judgment is very educational. That looks like blatant disregard and failure to exercise due care to me. What did she do, come ripping in the driveway at 20mph?

 

[PoorUB]

Being held accountable for your lapses in judgment is very educational. That looks like blatant disregard and failure to exercise due care to me. What did she do, come ripping in the driveway at 20mph?

Looks like drive instead of reverse and punch the gas peddle.

 

[finn]

His car insurance is not going to cover damage to your property when done in your private driveway. It would be a homeowner's claim for the door and a comprehensive claim to the 4Runner (if it even has comp. coverage and the damage warrants fixing). The person who owes Dad a new door is the daughter. Assuming she is gainfully employed, I'd be telling her to pick up some extra shifts to cover the cost. Being held accountable for your lapses in judgment is very educational. That looks like blatant disregard and failure to exercise due care to me. What did she do, come ripping in the driveway at 20mph?

Not true. Car liability insurance doesn’t have exclusions for damage on private property. If it did, damage at the local mall (running into a store window or knocking over a light standard for example) or the employers parking lot wouldn’t be covered. Liability is mandatory in most states, and there’s no deductible on it.

As long as the daughter was driving the Toyota with the boyfriends permission, ie not trying to steal it, his liability insurance would cover the damage to the door.

His comprehensive insurance, if he carries it, would cover damage to the vehicle, less deductible, of course.

 

[FredWanaker]

You could file against home insurance but the deductible would have to be less than the cost of a new door. Then your insurance company would call the insurance company for the driver, your daughter. That insurance company would pay back your insurance company. But if your daughter's car insurance is your policy, you would have a mark on your policy and your premiums would go up. If she didn't have insurance they would go after the policy on the 4-runner, and he would end up with a mark on his policy. If she doesn't have insurance then she should not be driving. Unless you find a used door you are looking at some bucks. Don't think you will get it back any straighter then it is now.

 

[65ranchero]

His comprehensive insurance, if he carries it, would cover damage to the vehicle, less deductible, of course.

Not true, collision will cover damage.
Comprehensive insurance is a coverage that helps pay to replace or repair your vehicle if it's stolen or damaged in an incident that's not a collision. Comprehensive, sometimes called "other than collision" coverage, typically covers damage from fire, vandalism or falling objects (like a tree or hail).

 

[Viper98912]

oh my garsh!

and you did a damn good job straightening it out, looks great!

 

[Stuart in MN]

It's metal, so it could be hammered and dollied out just like a crunched car fender, but you'd have to take the door apart to be able to do that. If it still functions okay I'd say wait until you get that loan and do the other planned improvements.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I wouldn’t put that through insurance, why make a claim for so little value, every claim adds to your premium.

 

[finn]

Not true, collision will cover damage.
Comprehensive insurance is a coverage that helps pay to replace or repair your vehicle if it's stolen or damaged in an incident that's not a collision. Comprehensive, sometimes called "other than collision" coverage, typically covers damage from fire, vandalism or falling objects (like a tree or hail).

This wasn’t a collision. Collision occurs when two or more cars hit each other. This is a liability situation where his liability covers your door.

As far as repairs to the car, repair of damage caused by hitting the door is no different than that of hitting a deer.

 

[finn]

I wouldn’t put that through insurance, why make a claim for so little value, every claim adds to your premium.

Usually requires more than two claims over some time period. I think my agent said two years.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Usually requires more than two claims over some time period. I think my agent said two years.

1st it's low value, 2nd I just went through my policy with my agent, I was paying for a claim that I that I decided against. Because I called a claim was opened even though there was no payout, agent told me always check your policy at least once a year. I was able to lower my policy 40%, he also told me that just initiating a claim without being paid could increase your premium, just saying.

 

[david3921]

Need to see where it's still bent on the inside. Nice repair so far though.

 

[yeldogt]

Looks better than I would have thought. Did it not have long stiffeners along the back of each door section ?

That's an expensive door today ...

The boyfriends insurance would pay for the door ... that's the liability that we all have to carry. No deductible.

If you went through your insurance (homeowners) .... once they found out how it happened they would forward to the boyfriend.

Now if the boyfriend only carried 15k of liability you would have to do two things if the damage was over 15k. Submit to both and then tell daughter never to see boyfriend as he is a fool for only having 15k

 

[CraigStu]

Can we get back to the door and skip all the insurance and child rearing stuff please?
OP, you did a great job. I'd use alcohol, maybe brake cleaner, to try to get the black off which will make more of a difference than you would expect. I'd look at that angle like most openers are hung from or similar to try to reinforce it. You need some strength but it can't be too heavy either. Finn mentioned something I am not familiar with so they be just what you need. I think, if you can keep the top panel where the opener attaches from bending, the rest of the panels will be OK.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Accidents happen.... He already said he had a good solution that he plans to impliment as part of a larger renovation. He asked about temporary fixes to bridge the gap between ordering (could be delayed), getting the funds from the loan and actually finding someone reasonable to do the install. Nobody has ever had accidents at the house? Why involve the poor kids insurance? I worked pretty young as a kid, delivering newspapers on my bike, sweeping floors at a hardware store.. etc. I'd still be making payments if my parents made me pay for all the dumb things I did trying to learn my way into adulthood.

As far as the OP, great job on the repair so far. A couple stiffeners on the back would go a long way to making the door get you by. Disconnecting an opener if you have one and opening the door manually would also help a lot. The forces from chain/ shaft driven openers can be pretty jerky.

 

[iamrfixit]

Once the panel is kinked the strength and rigidity is pretty much gone. You can add 16' garage door struts on the back side of each panel to regain some rigidity, it's going to take minimum one near the top of each panel and one both top and bottom of the lower panel. The struts aren't real heavy but adding the additional weight of several will affect the balance and your springs may no longer be strong enough to properly balance the door. Likely still work, it just may be harder to lift and may not stay open by itself. You can tighten the springs a little to offset small differences, but if you add enough weight it will require stronger springs.

Doors are very expensive now, nearly double what they were even just last year, and can take 4-6 months to even get your hands on one. Some individual components are very difficult to obtain as well. I've bought many of these struts for around $10-15 each in the past, but that's changed. At a local supplier they currently range from $30 each for 2-1/4" struts to $65 for 3". The wider struts are stronger, but you'll likely be limited to what you can find.

 

[captain14]

You did a good job getting it back to the shape it’s in. Just wait until you can combine it into the loan in the future. You get what you want and maybe the crazy prices and supply chains issues will be resolved by then.

I cannot tell you how many bay doors were hit in the fire stations I worked in and the garage door tech straightened them as much as possible and added the braces mentioned above.

Yes it was a full time job for the tech for all the garage doors and moving gates in the system .

 

[38 Dodge Coupe]

I did that to my parent's garage door before I had my driver's license over 50+ years ago. The car was an '67 Opel Kaddette Ralley model with a 4 speed. I was practicing going through the gears and somehow thought it would be more realistic if the engine were running. Now I knew enough to push in the clutch to shift, but this was in the days you could start a car in gear because it didn't have an interlock and I thought the car was in neutral and i turned the ignition key. Well within a second or two at the most, I had the front end of the car through the garage door. Oh well stuff happens! My Dad was not amused.

You did a great job of getting it straightened out for now and have some really good repair suggestions. I would suggest that you may want to rip a length of wood as a stiffener to span behind the door if you didn't want to use steel. You may only need 1 1/2"" x 3/4" x 86" or so to wedge in to push it back into shape. It should fit in the inside channel on the door.

 

[Monza Harry]

I'm thinking along the lines of 38 Dodge above. Buy the ribs now and have them deleted from the new door [explain when buying the new door for component compatibility, for the springs etc.] or just some 1X2's for the real short term 8 footers should do centered to the damage, they are cheap(ish right now) and light weight, if the support ribs are going to take too long for delivery. Harry

 

[firebirdparts]

If it's double walled, you can make holes in the inside which allow you to hammer/dolly the outside with a punch. But you probably already thought of that.

 

[The Cobbler]

Did every person on here lead a perfect life & never screwed up, where the parents bailed them out?
no one has ever made a mistake? geesh!
great job on the door repair . you have some good ideas posted already. a coat of flat white paint might hide a lot too

 

[Toxictom]

Not sure about that - I think if someone else was driving it would be on their insurance - not his. Also if you push that then he might be giving you a bill for the damage to the 4Runner so......

My daughter was the driver and is on my auto insurance policy as well. When I called my insurance company, who covers both home and auto, they said a claim would have to be filed under homeowner's policy. I tried arguing with them that the damage was caused by an auto accident but they wouldn't budge. The deductible on my homeowner's is $3500. New door is ~$3000.

His car insurance is not going to cover damage to your property when done in your private driveway. It would be a homeowner's claim for the door and a comprehensive claim to the 4Runner (if it even has comp. coverage and the damage warrants fixing). The person who owes Dad a new door is the daughter. Assuming she is gainfully employed, I'd be telling her to pick up some extra shifts to cover the cost. Being held accountable for your lapses in judgment is very educational. That looks like blatant disregard and failure to exercise due care to me. What did she do, come ripping in the driveway at 20mph?

She hit the door at idle speed while repositioning the car. I'm lucky it didn't damage the car inside. The problem was in part caused by faulty brakes in the 4runner. The BF had brakes replaced a couple months ago. I went to move his car a while ago and noticed the brakes were very spongy and didn't engage until the pedal was almost to the floor. I mentioned it to him and he said "well they work fine once they warm up". I tried to explain that is not how brake systems work but didn't bother arguing with him about it as he kept insisting it was all good. He had to go out of town for work the day of the accident so I had him call the mechanic that did the work and we dropped the rig off off there. The shop determined that an intake hose or vacuum line was cracked so bad it wasn't allowing vacuum to build up enough to engage the brake booster. They replaced the hose at no charge. BF reports it runs better and brakes work a lot better too.

I can't imagine what would happen you hit a door like this at 20mph. They're nothing but tin over Styrofoam.

UPDATE
I wound up the springs and everything goes up and down nicely. There was a bit of a bow at the top but the door operator flattens it out when closed. When it all closed there is daylight coming through a 1/4" gap between two panels. Other than that it seals up good.
All the garage door companies I called said a new doors are in short supply all over and 5-6 months out. Glad I was able to make it work.