"Very nice work. Why did you cut the section out? I know it would be harder to bend back and trying get it flat would be harder than patching for you. Just asking to learn a little more about manipulating metal."
Thanks for the kind words. And always feel free to ask questions. I promise to do my best to answer them if I can. After all, that is one of the reasons we're are here, right? To learn from each other?
I cut the small section out because it was the part keeping the C channel from coming back into shape. Metal has a memory and will want to try to keep or come back into it's original form when tweaked slightly. But once the metal takes on a new form from being pushed past that limit, it's nearly impossible to straighten or take the piece back to it's original form without losing something. And in most cases, the thing you lose is strength. The metal will become thinner in the areas that need to be straightened and thicker in others. This will lead to other problems besides taking away from the original strength like stress fracturing. Straightening metal is an extremely difficult art form to master and even if you are talented enough to be able to get everything back to straight, you would still need to heat treat the area after finished in order to keep it from becoming brittle from overwork. And doing that would be an extremely difficult and time consuming venture given the location of this piece on the trailer. Most if not all the decking would need to be removed, as well as the rear half of the wiring and lighting.
Hope that this helps.