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Old 10-11-2020, 05:36 AM   #1
wiredgeorge
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body work

Few camping trips ago I was turning a tight corner in an RV park and ran over an agave plant. It bent the drivers side and rear metal lower facia up about 3 inches. It is awkward to get up in there with a rubber mallet to beat it back. How would you pull out this sort of dent. I am getting sick of looking at it. It is about 2' long front to back and about 3" deep. The metal isn't creased just bent and the metal is fairly soft.
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Old 10-11-2020, 06:13 AM   #2
JRTJH
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A few pictures would help us understand the location and access issues. It's probably fairly easy to fix, but without knowing where it is and what's behind it.....
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Old 10-11-2020, 09:05 AM   #3
sourdough
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George, not sure I can be of much help but I have had an issue sort of like that. Had a metal table get knocked over beside the trailer and hit the J wrap. My dent wasn't nearly as big as yours; egg shaped, maybe 1/2" deep and maybe 3-4" across. I just took a rubber mallet and had DW hold an approx. 18" long 2x8 firmly on the outside while I gently tapped it back out. I could still barely see it when done but no one else could. Don't know if you could do that with yours unless you just did a smaller section at a time. I thought about using wood clamps vs DW but the J wrap had such a big curl that the throat depth of the clamps wasn't deep enough to accommodate the width of the J panel.
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Old 10-11-2020, 09:15 AM   #4
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Dagnabit I thought you was kidding about your driving...
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Old 10-11-2020, 09:56 AM   #5
flybouy
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Ideally a body work dolly behind the J wrap and a plastic hammer to work it a little at a time. Knowing how you hate spending any money ...you could take peice of lumber, cut/shape to roughly the radius of the J wrap. Use that behind the J wrap and tape over the face of a hammer (the flatter the head on the hammer the better) to work the outside.

In either case patience is the key. Work small areas and don't hit it like your driving a nail. That J wrap bends and deforms (stretches) easily.
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Old 10-12-2020, 11:41 AM   #6
wiredgeorge
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Here is the J panel damage where the agave plant jumped out and dented my camper. There is little room above the dent to whack away with a hammer. I tried a rubber mallet and you can't get leverage for a good whack. If technical body repair tools are mentioned, I don't have any and please explain what you refer to. Thanks
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Old 10-12-2020, 12:31 PM   #7
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Dagnabit I thought you was kidding about your driving...
Don’t they make tequila from those??
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Old 10-12-2020, 01:40 PM   #8
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Don’t they make tequila from those??
Yes they do...
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Old 10-12-2020, 01:43 PM   #9
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I think I'd first try bending it into a "roughly close position" with fingers and maybe a 2x4 cut to resemble a tuning fork. Once you get it "kind of close" then wipe the front surface with a wet rag to get all the sand/dirt off of the surface and tape a piece of cardboard to the surface. That will protect the metal finish from a "black rubber hammer".... Use a rubber hammer to the front (protected by the cardboard) and a properly sized wood "backing block" to the rear. It's going to be a "sit on the ground, under the trailer with one hand on the wood block and one hand on the hammer. Make a few adjustment blows, take down the cardboard, see what you accomplished, put the cardboard back and "hit it a few more times"....

Don't try to do too much at once and as Marshall mentioned (I think it was Marshall) don't bend the j-wrap too much and don't hit it too hard, it will easily deform if you're too aggressive.....

Worst case, make friends with someone at a dealership service department and ask them to keep you a piece of j-wrap from one of their repair jobs. There's almost always "left-over extras" and even if you have to trim the top so the bottom is the right length from the FILON, it's easy to remove the molding that holds the j-wrap in place and pull the old part off, seal the space and install the new j-wrap....
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Old 10-12-2020, 02:25 PM   #10
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George,
I have done a few J wrap repairs on my trailer. For that short section between the slide and the rear of the camper (if that is what I am seeing in the picture) you can easily remove the J-wrap and shape it back to form on soft surface workbench and then remount it back in place. There should be a few screws to remove behind the slide out cap and on the top remove or lift the rubber covering on the aluminum track to expose the screws. If you remove the rubber you will need to re-apply caulking to the top of the track. On the corner of the trailer the J-wrap should just slide out of the end piece and slide back in behind when replaced.
I "reinforced" all of my J-wrap (all of the long exposed runs) with 1/2 inch PVC pipe and stainless self tapping screws. You can not see it inside of the channel and for anything that gets "pressed" against the trailer it will have less chance of creasing or denting the J-wrap. At least that's the plan and hopefully a "test" of this theory will not be needed.
Good luck
On edit: Kind of the same thing John said. Sorry.
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Old 10-12-2020, 03:19 PM   #11
wiredgeorge
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Laredo Tugger View Post
George,
I have done a few J wrap repairs on my trailer. For that short section between the slide and the rear of the camper (if that is what I am seeing in the picture) you can easily remove the J-wrap and shape it back to form on soft surface workbench and then remount it back in place. There should be a few screws to remove behind the slide out cap and on the top remove or lift the rubber covering on the aluminum track to expose the screws. If you remove the rubber you will need to re-apply caulking to the top of the track. On the corner of the trailer the J-wrap should just slide out of the end piece and slide back in behind when replaced.
I "reinforced" all of my J-wrap (all of the long exposed runs) with 1/2 inch PVC pipe and stainless self tapping screws. You can not see it inside of the channel and for anything that gets "pressed" against the trailer it will have less chance of creasing or denting the J-wrap. At least that's the plan and hopefully a "test" of this theory will not be needed.
Good luck
On edit: Kind of the same thing John said. Sorry.
RMc

I can't bend the J wrap easily by hand. Tried to get a rubber hammer up in there but there is no room to deliver a blow. Will try and remove as you suggested as I never thought of that. If I can get it out, I can reshape it much more easily. Thanks!
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