newroadie

I was thinking of turning an old Schwinn frame that's laying around into a single-speed, but one of the rear dropouts is badly bent (both widened and angled away from the frame). Is there any possible way to repair this, or should I seek out a different frame?

Retro Grouch 

So what do you have to lose by trying? It doesn't sound like it's rideable now. Assuming that it's a steel frame, they'll take quite a lot of bending before they fail. If it was my bike I'd give it a shot. clamp a crescent wrench onto the dropout and bend it back.

cascade168

I agree with RG. Give it a shot. But, this is a job that's a hell of a lot easier if you have the correct dropout alignment tools. They make it simple to get proper leverage to do the bending and then make it very easy to get the dropouts correctly, and precisely aligned. Any shop should have these tools. For all the knocks that steel frames take, this is exactly the type of instance that makes them a good choice.
You can now get a good quality steel frame that weighs 3 lbs. The only other material that's going to survive a lot of bending is titanium. With CF, forget it. With Al, the amount of bending it will take is very small - and that's pretty much limited to correcting dropout alignment. Let the bending begin!

thomson

Since you are going to use ot for a single speed, you don't have to be that precise. I would first ensure you can get an axle in the dropout and once you can, keep the axle in while you bend the hanger.