Thought I get some point of views of what you would do on my hood. On my 59 Ford a rust free hood is not going to happen. I found one in good shape but had a big crunch. I worked the crunch back to the point where around 1/8 of a inch filler would take care of it. But the metal is a little sprung. Should I cut it out or use some small hair filler and let it be. The reason why I am asking is I don't want the welds on the backside of the panel since this is a high water area.
Cutting and welding to remove sprung metal? If that’s the plan, welding will cause distortion on its on. It it’s good metal that’s damaged, shrinking can cure it. Post pics and we can help better
If you shrink it get a shrinking disk.It will tighten up oil canning. torches are for guys with lots of practice.
If you don't want to cut and weld on it and it's past your skill level sounds like the time to seek out a quality metal finisher. I'd take it on for ya but you're on the wrong Coast. Sounds like the first thing I would have done is take the Skin off the inner structure. It isn't that tough, well for me it isn't.
Shrink disc is an excellent choice on the right job in the right hands. If you don't know how to drive one you can make Scrap Metal in a hart beat.
By "sprung" I assume it's oil canning? If so, yes, shrinking it in the right spot will fix it. Finding the right spot, and shrinking it "just enough", is a whole 'nuther story! For someone not experienced, I would recommend cold shrinking it. find the right spot to do, usually where the metal kinked when it was damaged, and use either a hard hammer and soft dolly (even a piece of wood), or a wood or plastic hammer, and a hard dolly, to slowly work the kink out. The choice depends on whether the kink, or upset, is too high, or too low. It will take longer to do, but you have more control over the process, and less likely to make a mess of it, as with heat.
I agree with the others here that shrinking the metal will help remove the oil-canning effect. You have to stop that otherwise it's going to break the paint and filler off later. With that said, an 1/8" of filler is completely acceptable in my opinion. Evercoat and 3M state that the maximum thickness of their fillers should be 1/4", so at 1/8" you're well within the specs of the material. Which is also not to mention a good coat of either spray poly, a high build primer, or both through the subsequent blocking process. Shrink it to stop oil canning, then 80 grit the steel, then filler.
If I have someone else do it then I dont learn. And if I mess it up then I fix it. Shrinking discs seems to be the way to go. Worked it more last night and it is much better but still needs a little help. Like everything else just cant get it to hot with the disc. Wolfs has a great video of how to do this with their discs.