Bending a spanner

[DavePoth]

I've got a snapped bonnet cable on my Rover, and the instructions I have to release the bonnet suggest using a spanner with the head bent by about 30 degrees to access a bolt. What would the best way of bending the spanner be? I was thinking about blowtorching it and then holding it in a vice while bending it, but the opportunity for burning myself horribly seems quite high.

[TrustNo1]

Heat is the only way to do it witout snapping it or buh a spanner that is already angled.

[cliftyhanger]

I have used the mig to provide a nice line of heat across a spanner, works for me.
And I have a box of assorted boot-sale spanners for just such occasions, I don't like playing with my nice set.

[harvey]

The sort of cheap cr*p spanners that can be bought from the Pound Shop for.... errrrrr..... A Pound (a set), and are ideal for just this sort of thing will normally bend that amount cold if you put them in a vice and hit them with a hammer.

What Rover are we talking about?

[MIG Wielder]

I've done this in the past with just a butane/ propane gas torch, heating the spanner until its red hot where you need to bend it and then using moderate hammer blows in a vice to get the bend. This invariably distorts the open ended jaws on the spanner so it then needs re-heating around the jaws until they can be closed up around the correct size bolt head.

[Edin Dundee]

I have a few spanners that were modified, some with right-angle jaws to access difficult bits at work.
The heads were cut off and welded on at an angle!

[cleverusername]

I've got a snapped bonnet cable on my Rover, and the instructions I have to release the bonnet suggest using a spanner with the head bent by about 30 degrees to access a bolt. What would the best way of bending the spanner be? I was thinking about blowtorching it and then holding it in a vice while bending it, but the opportunity for burning myself horribly seems quite high.

Cheap spanners can virtually be bent by hand they are so rubbish, you should have no problem in a vice. Not sure I would want to do that to a decent one.

Will a bent coat hanger not do the trick? It is how I got the Dolly open when I forgot to put the release cable back.

[DavePoth]

In the end I removed the grille to get some more clearance, which only involved mashing up a pair of plastic screws through the gap between the grille and bonnet. Took about three hours all told, and now the car looks like a distinguished extra from Mad Max.