Question:
We had a small accident.. my wife was in big hurry to get out of the
garage, and she started backing the car from within the garage as the
door was still opening. The door opened enough for the rear of the car
to get out, but the power antenna caught the garage door and broke. Once
we had the car back in, we noticed the following damages
1) Some of the rollers had come off the tracks
2) The metal string (?) has come off the pulley on one side of the door,
causing the door to be hanging in a tilted position (torsion spring
mechanism at the top/middle of the door).
With the help of a friend, I have managed to fix both of the above -
friend had some knowledge about how to work the torsion spring).
HOWEVER, now I notice cracks on 3 of the 4 sections of the door - about
2 inches long.. near where the sections curl up and meet each other.
This must have happened when the door was unbalanced (one side pully
working and the other side hanging by it's own weight).. maybe something
else, like the impact).
Now how do I fix these cracks? I am not much good at welding / brazing
and I have already messed up the paint near one of the cracks (about
2"x2" area) trying to braze it. Is this repairable? Or must I replace
all sections of the door? The rest of the door seems structurally just
fine.. auto opener works - everything is ok. But the sections now have
cracks!
Answer:
-It sounds like there's more to that story, but I won't go there.
Personally I would recommend that you replace the sections since they
will continue to flex back & forth each time the door is used.
Therefore the cracks will get bigger until the door bows so much they
will buckle & may even come out of the track.
While you could brace the inside of the door to prolong it's use the
cracks will be difficult if not impossible to repair. As you have
discovered any type of welding is going to burn the heck out of the
paint.
-Check the yellow pages to see if there is a Wayne Dalton store near you.
THey make great doors and service all brands and I've always found them to
be reliable. Their IDrive opener is particularly neat since it fits above
the door instead of in the middle of the ceiling. Lowes sells them too but
WD stores will probably sell and install it for less or fix the old door if
possible.
