wrote in message
oups.com...
We have an installed basketball driveway hoop that was here when we
bought the house. It is a really nice glass backboard hoop that costs
probably close to $ 500 to replace. Anyway, when a guy was delivering
firewood a couple of years ago, he backed into it and bent it right
near the bottom. It is now listing to the right and it it really
annoying. I don't want to get rid of it because like I said it is such
a nice backboard. What can I do short of blow torching it off (I would
lose about 5 - 6 inches of height, but I would rather have it straight)
Then dig up the concrete, and re-set it in the ground? Seems like
alot of work, and I have no experience with a blow torch. Could I put
a chain around it up high and attach it to a vehicle and attempt to
re-straighten it, but would that be possible and wouldn't the bottom of
it be permanently weakend?

Any help would be appreciated


I used to be a steel erection contractor. I used to straighten a lot of
vertical posts ou carports that would get bent from one means or another.
We used to either hook a sling on them, then hook the other end to a truck,
and slowly pull until it was just past where we wanted it to be. When the
pressure was released, it sprang back a little. Or, you can hook a come
along to a stationary object, and jack it that way. It takes a little
pulling this way and that, but it is fairly easy to get it pretty straight
again. Just take it slowly, and remember, the farther you put the sling up
from the concrete, the more the leverage increases. If you DO have a torch,
take a bind, then heat it a bit, and it will move on its own. But you lose
strength due to the application of heat. Just go slow. You don't want to
have to bend it back again in the other direction.

I could have it straight for you in half an hour. It depends on how bad the
thing is bent, and how much it has to be pulled back to be straightened, as
to how much strength you will lose. If you are just going go use it for
regular basketball, it should be okay. You might weld a couple of
stiffeners along the sides. If you want it for slam dunks, and people
hanging on the rim and swinging like orangutans, it might be a little weak.

It isn't hard to fix.

Steve