Bent Rib. any suggestions

[Dremel]

Found a bent rib.
It looks worse than the pic, about a 2 foot area.
The shell must have been crushed in at one time and they did not open the skin to fix.
Just filled the open rivet holes with silicone.

It is pulled away from the skin a half inch or so and wavey.

I tried a big hammer. But if i keep at that, i may hurt the rest of the rivets. I would think it would be hard to hammer into a tight connection to the skin.

I am guessing that the best thing wound be to make a cut on each end of the bad section and remove. Then i cound hammer back into shape.
Put back into place and bolt on a aluminum plate on both sides of the cut to sister it back into place.

Anybody do something like this ?

[rugjenkins]

Considering where it is that's not a bad plan

[sgschwend]

You can use a hydraulic bottle jack to shift the frame up. Set the jack on the floor and use a block to reach the roof. If you decide to reverse the jack block order then put a small block between the jack and the trailer frame to help spread the force.

The frame is down in the center and out at the sides, the out deviation is in fractional inches so you can't see that.

[YippieKiYa]

Originally Posted by sgschwend

You can use a hydraulic bottle jack to shift the frame up. Set the jack on the floor and use a block to reach the roof. If you decide to reverse the jack block order then put a small block between the jack and the trailer frame to help spread the force.

The frame is down in the center and out at the sides, the out deviation is in fractional inches so you can't see that.

I was thinking this same thing. Seems like it would be easier to do than all of the cutting and bolting (with my luck, my sawzall would grab and poke a hole in the skin). You might risk a few rivets, but you'll be replacing rivets anyway.

[Dremel]

Ill check out the jack first