[tcruise]

The hood on my '76 Chevy truck has a slighty crease at the end of the hood hinge, causing it to stick up about a quarter of an inch above the fender.
There is a break in the metal on the side edge of the hood, and the metal on the inside that the hinge attaches to is bent inward.

The hood on this vehicle is very heavy, yet amazingly NOT rigid. There is damn little room between the outer and inner sheet metal.

I think I can figure out how to weld the break once it is straight. I am a bodyworking novice. I have a propane torch and a basic set of body hammers and the usual shop tools.

I'd appreciate your suggestions on how to straighten it and add reinforcement to prevent it bending again. Would prefer to use scrap or off-the-shelf material, since I don't have any metal fabrication tools.

Thanks!

[MARTINSR]

GM knows this is a very weak spot which is why they sold a reinforcement back in the seventies for it. They also changed the hinge design and made it come out longer to support the hood better.

Check out the dealer to see if they still have the reinforcement for sale.

As far as repairing the hood, those are a beeetch. You will need to really weld it, no propane torch for this one.

Do you have access to a MIG?

Brian

[tcruise]

Thanks for the info. I'll check into the reinforcement part.
No MIG welder, only ARC and Oxy-Acetelene. I considered getting a cheapy at Harbor Freight, but thought better of it. Hoping I can get away with using an ARC welder to fix the crack on the side...

[antiquecar]

If you have access to a replacement hood go ahead and try and fix the old one. You are going to ruin the paint no matter what you do and you may not succeed using the equipment you have but you have gained experience. I would check the yards and see if you can find an original and if you do put the reinforcement piece on. Who knows the hood you find may already have had the problem fixed. Just one old mans opinion Jan

[tcruise]

Where I live, it's really hard to find body parts that do not have rot.
I've scoured the area for a fender (mine is dented but has no rust), inner fender and hood, and all the ones I've found have rot. All the parts on the right-front of these trucks seems to have rot from battery acid leaks/venting. Also, the coolant overflow tank on mine has a big crack in it that I did not notice until I went to clean it out. acid + water/coolant + steel = rot :-{

I think I'll leave the hood for now and focus on welding the inner fender and straightening the fender. The metal is amazingly hard to bend (lots of compound curves). I've had a terrible time trying to hammer this out, even drilling holes though the inner-layer and using a drift with a socket on the end of it on one dime-sized spot at a time!

I'm going to try heating it with a propane torch to soften it up a bit, and pour cold water on it to re-harden it when done.