attn. Bent metal and rambo's ride

Yikes! Although anything can be fixed, I think your best bet is looking for a new hood.

If you really want to save it. I would start by separating the inner and outer panel and clean all the paint and rust off. Preferably sand blast them. Then you can see just how far into the panel you need to re-make. The outside panel won't be that hard to make but the inside panel has a lot of shape and also the little resting areas for the bumpers need to be there. They determine your up and down hood adjustment. By the looks of your outside piece, your inside peice is probably about half gone. I would make the outside piece completely metal finished and fitting on the car first. Then make the inside piece to fit that. Hopefully it's not rusty around the latch area itself. Usually it's the outside corners of the hood and the rust migrates toward the center. Yours has obveously been migrating a long ways and for a long time. It might not be good in the center, can't tell from the photos. .... You could do it, but it's going to be a challenge. I don't think it's really worth all the work.

That's my two cents, what does everyone else think?:)

Smasher O'Brannan wrote:

bent metal......allready done the seperation.....AND sand blasted it......what you see is whats left. The right side isn't nothing to fix. The left side however...well....I think i'm going to grind the jagged ends straight......and then using my metal clips tack in a piece of 18 gauge thats cut to fit. I HOPE THIS WORKS!!!......I have to save it, no other hood!......Thanks for looking, Smasher

Are you sure you can't find another hood close-by, maybe trade something for it if you don't have the cash????

The biggest problem with fixing this is that the metal is so thin you'll be chasing your welds burning thru - even with a brass backing plate !

By the time you get done the repair area will be 2x the size of the rust out shown in the photos and you'll have to remove or re-create the body lines.

I'd step back and think about this one a bit...there are plenty of hoods available....

I would agree with the others, decent used hoods should be around pretty cheap. My dad has a least one in his stash, maybe more than that( in NY). Dave K in Ohio sold a large load of large body panels last year that had some hoods in it, and there was another stash in NY that was just about given away as well. The large panels that are expensive to ship usually can be found in private stashes. Find local HET members and start asking.



If you are just up for the challange, go for it. Metal working is something I enjoy but have not been able to do much of. Worst case you are only out your time on this one.