Straighten Twisted Aluminum Window Channel

[itstippy]

I backed up my pickup with the cap door open and mashed it into a tree. The plexiglass shattered and the aluminum window frame bent in a lower corner, quite impressively. I want to straighten the bent frame so the window repair folks can put in a replacement piece of plexiglass. They did this for me once before when someone threw a rock through the original tinted safety glass; that time the window channel wasn't bent all out of shape, though. What's my best bet on straightening this twisted channel? Heat with a torch? Bend slowly? Hammer into place with sharp raps? It doesn't have to be pristine; it's a working/camping truck. Attached are pics of the unbent corner and the twisted corner. Ignore the date, my camera is whack, I destroyed the window just yesterday.

 

[matt_i]

I think I'd try to put some shims or flat stock in the bend. Try to get the gross bend back with a vise. Then get the correct size spacer inside the channel and you can try to hammer form it -- gently. Being aluminum and lacking ductility it could crack. Not a real easy to anneal it.

In worst case you could cut out the bent part and go back with steel which would be a lot easier to tig weld into a channel, then pop-rivet or screw to the other part of the window.

 

[joe49]

What you have in the way of tools? Vice, torch, vice grips, seamers, soft hammers, the tools available will give a better direction to follow. Your experience is still the hurdle.

 

[itstippy]

Thanks guys, I got 'er done. At one point I had that thing clamped six ways to Sunday. I used wood blocks and metal shims (the bar from a bar clamp and the bolt from an antique lockset). It looked like garage art. Lessons learned:

* Aluminum window channel can be clamped tightly and coaxed back into place without cracking. No heat, no pounding.

* Do not back your truck into a tree with the cap door open.