Picnic Cooler Lid Repair

[BrianS]

Picked up this cooler yesterday for $40 at an Estate Sale.  Making it a Father/Son project to try to semi-restore it.  We have the liner out and the majority of hte dents straightened out (at least to our satisfaction).  Going to work on the minimal rust which should clean up pretty well, but the lid is what needs some attention.  You can see from the pic it has been smashed on one end and one of the corners has a good ding in it.  The liner is spot welded in place so I don't think it can be removed without risking visible damage ot the lid.  Any suggestions other than just pulling up on the handle? 

[Blind1968]

That's Awesome, my son has helped me on a few of mine. Good ol quality father son time. 

[tkaz]

If you can't get your hands on a stud welder, then I would give one of those 'As Seen On Tv' Pops-a-Dent tools a try.  It should help to pop the top back into shape, if the metal hasn't stretched too much from the dents that are there.

Great project with a kid, looking forward to some updates.

[Bigfoot]

My experience with pulling up on the handle is that it's 50/50/50.
Half the time it works.
Half the time it doesn't.
Half the time it gets 1/2 the dent.

[aspbear]

After pulling up the handle (some time you can get some of the dent out) I drill a series of small holes along the stress point of the dent (where the metal was stretched the most) and the use a tapping screw to pull the dent out.  Grind as smooth as possible fiberglass any rust cut outs and use bondo to overfill the area and then sand to get the orginal shape and then sand it to smooth and prime.

[BrianS]

Well here is where we have gotten so far, cut the spot welds out from the lid so we could take it apart.  Was the only way to get the smashed lid back to some form of its original shape.  Actually allowed us to straighten out the edges and get a tight fit reinstalling the bottom panel.  Filled it with low expansion foam and that seems to be holding it together nicely.  Also found out the cardboard trick works very well for liner installation on these smaller coolers as well.

[BrianS]

Well we finished it up over the weekend.  Doesn't look too bad for a couple of amateurs with a couple of cans of spray paint and no real idea of what we were doing.  Lots of minor dents and bodywork flaws, but we had a good time and hopefully its something Jake will keep for years to come.  He thinks its awesome, and the fact we worked on it together has made it my favorite piece. 

[iggybu]

I asked Rick from American restoration about this problem...his solution was to shrink the metal by heating it up then putting a wet towel on it. Keep doing it until
It tightens up the metal and stays popped out. I have yet to try it on my 7up chest but will when I get around to restoring it. Hope this helps. Let me know how it turns out if you try.

[krovel]

I think your cooler turned out really good. You finished it fast too. I hope mine turns out as well as yours.

Kevin