Air Conditioning - Every single fin on outside unit is squashed in

I recently had an A/C guy come out here and do an investigation as to why our new-used house isn't being cooled very well. He found several issues, many of which I've fixed myself (return air duct was 3 times smaller than it should have been..simple things)

One thing that he mentioned is that the outside unit is in bad shape and he could straighten the fins for a couple hundred bucks, simply because it takes so long. I went and bought a fin comb, but even using the 14 FPI comb, it isn't bringing them straight out, it is bending the last few, leading me to believe I need a 16 FPI comb or greater to straighten them properly....

So I spent a couple of hours today pulling each fin out separately with a putty knife, getting them as straight as possible, and then combing them to make them fairly perpendicular to the unit.

My issue is that I only covered maybe 6 square inches during that couple of hours, and at this rate it will take weeks to get the whole unit done (at which time we won't even be using the a/c anymore)

So, my questions are:

1. Do you think my assumptions are correct about needing a larger FPI comb? I took a tape measure and did my best to measure the fins in an inch and I came up with 16 (admittedly, I may be off by 1 or 2 because it's tough to count fins that are bent in...there are no good spots on the whole unit to measure..)

2. Is it worth the time and effort to straighten the fins out? Will it give a decent performance boost? Will this help the unit blow harder or cooler or both?

Any tips or techniques you can give me would be very much appreciated....

Thanks,
Kevin

From a contractor perspective if I was asked to look at your unit I would recommend you replace it.
The fins need to be nearly original in appearance for the unit to work properly.

If you have the patience to work at it by picking away you will eventually get there.
At this stage you are nowhere near needing a fin comb.
The fins need to be almost in near perfect alignment before the comb will help.

There is another type of comb I like that is like a stiff brush and works well at the stage you are at.

Can you give me a link to a picture of this stiff brush tool you're talking about or would the guys at the a/c supply shop know what I'm talking about?

I'm getting better at picking each fin out, but it's still a major pain in my ass. He did recommend a replacement, but at this point in time, it's just not in the budget...

Thanks for the reply.

Kevin