"If I would have known how bad it was going to be before I started I would have bought a new ____" (Hood) How many times have I said that?
A new hood is $400+. More than I paid for the car. Just kidding, if I would have known in the first place, I probably still would have started cutting and welding anyway.
Now that both back side patches are in place, I noticed that the front of the hood was rusted through too. I did not attach the patches at the front edge. I marked up into the solid metal, and used the fiber cutoff wheel on the die grinder to cut away the rusty metal, this time on the outside of the hood.
These are a part of the car that will be seen, so only the best patch panel metal will do--made from one of the door skins cut from the gold sedan I scrapped a month earlier.
Using Eastwood's "Heat Shield" compound. It works well, and is reusable. It has salt in it, so it instantly rusts any bare metal it touches, which seems a little counterproductive at first, but it drastically prevents panel warpage while welding, so it's worth it.
