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The other day I hit the button to open the door on my way out of the garage to grab something. In my haste, I had forgotten that I had the door slide lock engaged still. As a result, before I could stop it, the opener trolley had ripped the bolts securing it's arm to the door straight out.

Is there any relatively simple way to fix this? Some kind of plate I could put over and drive new holes through or something? It's a metal door.

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Update from comments: It looks like it's metal over some kind of plastic/fiber. I think @JACK's answer is still a good one.

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  • The screws with threads appears to at least 3/4-1 1/4 embedded into the door. Are you sure the door is metal? Pullng 5 heavy screws out of a metal door would be very difficult. Looks like the doors is made up of something like Masonite. How thick is the door where the screws went in?
    – Programmer66
    May 1, 2020 at 23:36
  • @Programmer66 see the update I made. My apologies for not being clear that it's not solid metal, just the outer most layer.
    – mindlis
    May 2, 2020 at 0:58
  • ...you should also adjust (reduce) the force settings on the opener - it should stall when trying to open a locked door, not rip things apart.
    – Ecnerwal
    May 2, 2020 at 3:01
  • @Ecnerwal, absolutely. I was kind of counting on that as a feedback and was really surprised to hear it rip them out!
    – mindlis
    May 2, 2020 at 3:27

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The best way to fix this would be to drill the existing holes through the door out the front. Then get some bolts, washers and nuts. Put the bolts and washers from the outside in through the door. Mount the arm to the bolts, then washers and finish off with nuts. Tighten and you're good to go. Oh, and disable the sliding lock. Good luck and stay safe out there.

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  • This is another thought I had, so I'll probably go this route as soon as I can get out to a hardware store...
    – mindlis
    May 1, 2020 at 23:08

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