Straightening bottom motor cover

Has anyone successfully straightened the lower half on an outboard motor cover? I have a 1980 25hp Johnson with a slight bend in it. The previous owner must have backed the boat into something or someone rear ended it. Due to the bend, the upper half of the cover doesn't seat properly and the shifter scrapes the side of the motor.

The motor itself runs great and I would like to recondition it to make it look good again, but with the bent lower half, its hard to justify putting that much effort into it. That particular part is no longer available from the boat shop and I wouldn't want to spend $180 on it if it was available.

If it can't be repaired, does anyone know of a salvage yard that may sell this part at a reasonable price?

Post a pic so we can see what ya got. I am sure if it isn't cracked then it is salvageable to some extent. I see lower covers on ebay all the time for older johnsons but they get a hefty price for them usually.........like $200-300 :shock:

Finally figured out how to straighten this thing and thought I'd post it here in case anyone else might be interested.

I really wish I had taken some photos before I started working on it, there was a good 3/4" to 1" twist in the cowling. I laid the piece upside down on the concrete driveway and stacked 150lbs of gym weights on it, half in front and half on the back. Then I used a garden flame weeding torch and began heating the cowling.

After a few minutes of heating I used a small sledge hammer, striking the stacked weights. It took about 10 minutes of this to get the piece fairly straight, however there was still a slight amount of twist. Using a pipe clamp and wedging the cowling between the boat trailer frame and bunks, I was able to remove the last bit of twist.

Now its ready for the paint job!