2008 MBP Dent ... Any Repair Suggestions?

[ChrisBrightwell]

Okay ... Here's the story:

I was waiting for a flight at the Minneapolis airport, with my laptop in a sleeve and bag in the seat next to me. It was in an Incase sleeve, inside my Crumpler laptop/camera backpack ("Whickey and Cox"), when a punkass kid knocked it out of the seat next to me and the bag landed with a hollow "thud".

The camera and lenses are fine, thankfully, but now I have this obnoxious dent in my year-old MBP. It's purely cosmetic, as far as I can tell (I've run every hardware test I can find ... ).

Here are pics of the damage (click to enlarge):

I've taken the laptop apart (and no, I didn't damage anything in the process) and it looks like the warp is simply where the pressure of the drop popped the glue between the aluminum shell and the internal frame of the lower case. There's no visible damage to the SuperDrive (I pulled it out and inspected it closely), nor does the SD have any trouble burning or reading any of the discs I've tried.

I'm trying to find a way to repair this that doesn't involve replacing the entire lower case. I don't feel like doing that repair myself and don't really feel like paying and Apple repair tech to do it for me. I tried some basic superglue, but it doesn't bond to the aluminum (I was able to scrape it off, cleanly and easily, even 24 hours after applying the glue and clamping the bond site).

Any ideas?

 

[pol0001]

Take your lower case apart to avoid damaging any other parts in the repair procedure. Aluminium is a very soft metal. At first, see if you can push the dent back in. Otherwise I would suggest to put the inner side on something hard like the corner of a table. Then wrap a towel or something soft around a hammer and carefully hammer the dent back in.

 

[miles01110]

Otherwise I would suggest to put the inner side on something hard like the corner of a table. Then wrap a towel or something soft around a hammer and carefully hammer the dent back in.

You'll have more success putting some padding on the back of a nail or some other small object and hitting that with a hammer. Since the dent is so small you'll need point pressure.

 

[fabian9]

Okay ... Here's the story:

I was waiting for a flight at the Minneapolis airport, with my laptop in a sleeve and bag in the seat next to me. It was in an Incase sleeve, inside my Crumpler laptop/camera backpack ("Whickey and Cox"), when a punkass kid knocked it out of the seat next to me and the bag landed with a hollow "thud".

The camera and lenses are fine, thankfully, but now I have this obnoxious dent in my year-old MBP. It's purely cosmetic, as far as I can tell (I've run every hardware test I can find ... ).

Here are pics of the damage (click to enlarge):

I've taken the laptop apart (and no, I didn't damage anything in the process) and it looks like the warp is simply where the pressure of the drop popped the glue between the aluminum shell and the internal frame of the lower case. There's no visible damage to the SuperDrive (I pulled it out and inspected it closely), nor does the SD have any trouble burning or reading any of the discs I've tried.

I'm trying to find a way to repair this that doesn't involve replacing the entire lower case. I don't feel like doing that repair myself and don't really feel like paying and Apple repair tech to do it for me. I tried some basic superglue, but it doesn't bond to the aluminum (I was able to scrape it off, cleanly and easily, even 24 hours after applying the glue and clamping the bond site).

Any ideas?

In order for the aluminium to bend outwards like this, the bottom right hand corner of the casing must have been pushed upwards slightly during the impact, causing the case to buckle and get pushed outwards in the location where it is bent.

You will therefore not only have to bend the aluminium back where the dent occurred, but also remove the added strain on the case in this location, which caused the deformation in the first place.

If possible at all I'd try to get the lower casing out in one piece and make sure the bottom right hand corner gets pushed down again to make a flat surface with the rest of the case. This should reduce the strain on the location where the deformation is and it should naturally move back closer to the right location. I would then take a very small padded vice and span the side into it to remove any remaining deformation.

Fabian

 

[mikes70mustang]

you dont feel like doing it yourself, and you dont feel like paying some one. Since it seems that you have no experience in dent fixing or similar ventures, you should just live with it. Sounds like you will probably mess it up trying to do it yourself.