You can open the bends no problem by hand.
I did the same thing to a bimini top I bought to get it to fit.
I thought I would have to use a pipe bender but I just laid it down on the floor so the part I wanted to bend was pointing up and carefully applied pressure. They bent pretty easily. Just go slow.
Before I bent it I pushed the long end of the pipe up against the wall, laying flat on the ground, and marked where the opposite end was. This gave me some reference of how much I was bending it. It is hard to tell how much you move it.
I also had it all apart so I was just dealing withe poles and not fighting the cover.
I also lowered mine by drilling out the rivet in the bottom fitting, using a pipe cutter I took off a couple of inches then drilled a new hole and riveted the end back on.
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