Now what? The silly garage door is buckling in the center and will not go down. The motor and chain work fine but the center panel (about number two from the top) buckles and it stops - thankfully. The cross member actually has a buckled crease it it.

OGD (Overhead Garage Door) sent out a twenty two year old girl with little experience; she just threw up her hands and said I needed a complete new garage door. That just cannot be right. At least I need to replace maybe panels two and three as the others are fine. And whatever is making it come down crooked needs to be fixed. But not a complete new door. Or am I wrong?

It has always worked fine. Now panel two and three bend out toward the driveway.

Anyone have an idea? See pics.

Doggone it; all this pics are sideways and I do not know how to change the orientation.

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I'd be looking for a seized hinge or roller. More likely a hinge point, a seized roller would probably still slide. Disconnect from the door opener trolley, put penetrating oil not WD-40 in EVERY hinge point and roller and try it again tomorrow. Look very closely at every hinge for fine metallic powder indicating corrosion.

I'm guessing the door could be methodically bent back into shape.

Be careful working around the door springs.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Turning pics:

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Excellent.

Thx.

It happens to a lot of garage doors, especially double door. The metal fatigue causes it to bend. It is only sheet metal. The garage people would always recommend you to replace it, not individual panels because they would say the panel or pattern is no longer available.

It is an easy fix if you are handy. Get a metal pipe 1/2", 8' long and bolt it to the bent panel to strengthen the sheet metal.

Good luck.

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Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

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If you live in a windy area the wind may have buckled it if your door is not rated for the area. It is very windy here and our door is double sided and really heavy to take the wind. In our last home I bought a HD door and the wind blew it in since it was not wind rated.

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Tony H
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If a roller shank is not seized. Or hinges binding. Lag bolting a piece of angle iron onto the wood might repair it.

An aluminium angle from a scrap yard night do it. Steel should be easy to get. Although depending on the weight the spring or springs may need wound up a little more.

I band-aided my old garage door for a year with angle iron with pre-drilled holes installed in the same manner. Worked.

Tyl: You want the angle iron to be long enough to allow it to be bolted to at least the three most central ribs currently supporting the offending panel. You also want to do this quickly, as continuing to open the door in this condition will allow the bent panel to flex and start affecting the panels above and below it.

If the darker brown parts are tubular and you can get though the ends of them you could cut some wood and pass it inside of the tube with a snug fit (with occasional screw from the outside to keep the wood from sliding out). (Could even be something to screw the angle iron into to pull it straight.)
If yo worry about the wood warping after you have the size right coat paint or otherwise coat the wood.


Note I have never seen that type of garage door up close.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Angle iron with predrilled holes to affix bolts is much simpler to use for this purpose...

That’s what I did. When the door is horizontally Flat it’s probably at its weakest and has the potential to bend

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Simplicity is not in dispute. The fitted reasonably the Wood offers more support over the area of the whole tube that the wood is inside of and the wood can flex/bend some and return to shape and it won't matter what position the door is in.
I think both the wood and the angle iron could be used together and the result would be better then just one method. But, I am not there to actually see it.

The person fixing the garage door will do what they think is best.

I have been up on my roof part of each of the last 3 days because I did not patch up the roof well enough several years ago. I did what was simple to do at the time with the materials a I has on hand. (In between then and now I acquired most of what I needed to do a better job but never got my Butt up there and did the job better.)

Now I have to do a much more extensive job. And that is not including the damage the leaks did inside.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thx guys. A lot of info to ingest. It is my son's garage so I will be talking with him.

Thanks again.