I opened the MBP 17" 2008 to see what is the condition inside and to see if there is anything I can do to straighten the bent case. As said before I suspect somebody sat on the machine bending it. The front feet are not even close of touching the table and it sits on the battery. Also the IR sensor window area and the Expresscard slot area are dented outwards. The front left corner of the top case has separated from the plastic surrounding and supports underneath it.
So, a gazillion screws later I finally had it open. All seems quite clean. The spotwelds in that front corner have separated and the metal support is loose as is the top corner itself. Also the 3 spotwelded screw hole brackets in the front of the top cover have all separated from the top case, second pic 3 screw hole brackets are glued back in middle of the lower edge. In the bottom case pic the brackets are still loose in the front of the case.
It seems that the spotwelding is not very durable in this kind of construction. If the device is dropped they are first to go as they do not flex but break. Also the 3 screw brackets can simply be broken off by tightening the screws too tight. But, I don't know if in this case they got ripped off in the bending incident or indeed over tightening them when the SSD was installed.
This design is clearly much weaker than the unibody but being thin sheet metal and support brackets it is semi repairable. If unibody is dropped and a corner is smashed it is much more difficult to get it back in shape. Easier just to replace the part.
Well... first the most worrying part: bending the machine back straight. The correct approach would have been to remove the logic board and then bend the case alone. But, the screen is bent too, not going to dismantle it now. So, I decided to risk it 🥵 and bent the bottom case against table edge and same to the top case too. The display I just bent in my hands to have a better feel of what I am doing. I didn't get them 100% as metal tends to spring back when bent. I didn't have a nerve to overbend the bottom case enough so it would end up totally straight. But, I am quite happy with the result. It is much better than what it was before. The outward dented bottom case areas I reshaped back by hand, not perfect but better too.
The separated support bracket and the screw brackets I glued back to place with slow cure Epoxy. This was important as I needed to adjust the screw hole placement when top case is in place to make sure they are aligned. And note, the brackets are slanted inwards as the screws enter in an angle from the battery side of the bottom case.
Overall it ended much better than originally and I am quite happy with it.
😎 And it still works too! 😅
