When we were narrowing and building our 12 bolt chevy diff for my 1966 pontiac parisienne, we found that the housing was bent, so before we welded on the ford 9" style axle end and bearing retainer my dad showed me how to straighten the bent axle tube with heat.
This video demonstrates it pretty well, just add heat to the side that is the outside side of the bend arc as needed. We heated to cherry red in a small area about 1 1/2 inch wide and 2" long along the tube, and as it heated it expanded making the bend seem worse, but as it cooled it pulled back further and cooled in place at the exact spot. Im sure practice makes it easier, and heat placement would depend on the radius of the bend. Anyway its a cool trick. Dad said that some scca and can am racers used to deliberately bend their axles a degree or two off to create negative camber for their cars this way.
Hope its a trick you can use on your builds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8m919bCeEE
-- Edited by Mitchel on Wednesday 4th of January 2017 04:39:33 PM
