Thread: OK steel workers, lets fix some steel on this excavator!

the upper sheet metal stuff can probably taken off and straightened by an auto body shop or in your shop on a table but that bottom metal its either heat or more tonnage than the moron running it used to put the dents in, I guessing its way worse than the pictures show. either cut off wheels or air arc and cut out the sections that are bad, that will save the crap behind it then insulate the the stuff behind it with a koawool or something like that and weld the new pieces in. that looks like at least 1/4" it will take massive amounts of heat to work out the dents so everything behind it would need protected. I have straightened out some large areas of thick bent up stuff by putting a couple of weed burner torches on it until just turning red and going at it with a 16 lbs hammer.To straighten thick stuff lots of heat or lots of tons no way around it.

There are plenty of good AG and Equipment forums out there where you will find people who have probaly done what you are looking to do.

You came to a forum centered around machining and manufacturing and are surprised that you got an unfavorable response to "Help me make my tractor pretty?" lol

I will re state what others have already said..the easy way to fix that to the level it sounds you want is most likely to cut out the panels. Even just a sledge hammer and a stump will straighten those out 10 times faster that trying to work inside confined spaces or rig something up. Or just start weldin crap to it that you can pull on with other crap, it's not too complicated. With bodywork it is really easy to stretch and warp beyond repair, but that thick of steel will be hard to screw up bad.

You already said you don't want to cut them out, but why? I have had an excavator before, and I know like was pointed out already there is tons of stuff crammed in those machines. It sounds like it would be no problem for you to dissasemble some of the machine to do these repairs though if you need it that badly.

and lastly...Just Leave It Alone

Originally Posted by huleo

Appreciate the OCD responses guys but it looks worse in person. Every single person that looks at it asks "jesus christ, is there anything straight on it?".... I am not going through years of that. If I showed the rest, you might get it, but I do understand people in logging states could care less. If it moves, it is "a good machine"....

Just answer "Not with you sitting in it".

Originally Posted by huleo

@gbent

Appreciate it but I have hundreds of hours of seat time. No, I refuse to damage equipment to meet a budget.

Yes, and I am well familiar with zero swing machines. They have their place.

As someone with extreme OCD I too would try to fix all the dents..... at some point.

Originally Posted by huleo

Bought this rig and prev owner apparently was on a mission to see what he could hit. The doors and such are being replaced but I am trying to figure out a plan on the main house frame. That is formed single wall steel that is .200" thick. the main issue is there really is nothing to safely push against inside the doors for a porta power. they are also stitch welded along the bottom and no way to remove from machine.

I am trying not to over thinking this. I was thinking about a piece of Ibeam over the outside so I could try a clamping technique, but not if if we will need heat or not? The very back of the machine is a cast iron counterweight so it is safe to push on for days.

I thought about welding studs on to pull on but then I have to fix all that. We will eventually paint the machine in which I can get a little mud in these areas. Obviously it is a work machine so I need to align my head with that, but I can't stand beat up equipment. I want it to at least look better.

This might be stating the obvious: I used to frequent the following heavy equipment forum Heavy Equipment Forums . Construction equipment is their speciality