Feel Daring? Cut Up a 47 Ford Hood! (a little update on my project)

I decided to not go with a completely smooth 42 ford hood, but decided I'd lighten up the center body line of the 47 hood. I always felt the center part was too bulky looking, so I deducted an inch.

I started off with a spare hood, marked off my inch in the center, and then cut it apart with a cut off wheel.

I then tacked the hood back together, giving me my new narrow center strip, and a hood thats too narrow to fit the car.

I then cut off about 6" on either side of the center strip.

Nothing like cutting apart a cherry hood!

 

Next I drilled out the spot welds on the 2 pinch welds on the center part, media blasted them, and weld through primed, and spot welded the parts back together.

Next I tack welded the hood on the car to the fenders, and cut out the center strip.

No turning back now.

I then cut the front part of the center strip off (it had to be done in 2 parts, or the hood would have fallen apart), and Cleco'd the new center strip over the hood on the car. A .040" cut off wheel trimmed the parts perfectly for a but weld.

I then tacked (MIG) in the new center strip every few inches, grinding each tack flush, and hammer and dollying out any shrinkage. I then put a tack weld every inch, also grinding and hammer/dolly each one at a time.

 

Here is the top of the hood center strip cut out.

The new center strip was also cleco'd in, and I worked about 6-8 inches at a time, cutting through both layers of metal, and using but weld clamps to hold the pieces together for tack welds.

Eventually I had the entire piece tacked in every inch, and the tacks ground and hammered flat.

 

Next I hammer welded the entire hood with a Henrob gas torch, doing about 3/4" at a time, hammering each weld flat as it cooled. This was a VERY time consuming process, but with each weld hammered out, eliminating shrinkage, the hood has no warpage, and only had a few slight high spots that needed to be shrunk down, from hammering too much on a few welds.

So here is the almost finished hood. It still needs more finish work, this could be skimmed with filler and be blocked out nicely, but Im going to bring up some slight low spots, and metal finish it as well as I can.

 

Lookin real good Chad. I agree with the big ass strip down the center looking like crap, but we actually incorporated it back into the new grill opening we made. Otherwise, thats dead on. It needs a little something, but not as much as the factory line.

 

Thanks!

I still havnt forgotten about the pictures for you. Ive just been kinda busy with work, its our crunch time of year.

I will get them to you asap.

Heres a pic of the old center strip next to the new one. I still have to finish weld and hammer the seam on the center strip on the hood.

 

Looks nice Chad. Its funny - I was just looking at my hood thinking it needed an inch or so out of its height.

 

Nice work, Chad!
Love that Cadillac grille, too.

 

No rush man. I probably won't be getting the car back until Oct or so to do the chop. I've got about a month left on it now and then I know he's gonna want to drive it for a while. These things look real ugly in mint green...

 

Are you talking about sectioning your hood?

 

Thanks, the grill is just sitting there. As you can see in the pics, the front sheet metal needs to be stripped, and then needs a lot of metal work to fix those tacked seams, and work in the grill.

Heres an overall rear shot I just took.

 

I thought a 41 Ford might fit??????.............OLDBEET

 

Yes - I feel a 1.5" pie cut might be just the ticket.

 

I honestly wouldnt do that on your car. I love it just as it is. I didnt pie cut my hood, the height hasnt changed, I narrowed the center strip. IMHO, the overall downward flow from front to back is ruined when you pie cut the hood of a 41-48 ford.

 

NICE WORK!!...a big improvement,,,,in fact, the whole car is looking really great,,,,,,i really want one of those henrob torches...
the caddy grille looks good too,,looks like the one i used in my 41 caddy...is it a 52?

 

I follow your progress like stink on shit........very nice Chad.

 

Just can't get enough of your car - love it.
Keep up the good work...

Malcolm

 

Thanks all, the grill is a 48 caddy.

I LOVE my henrob.

I dont think you can weld a hood like this without hammer welding, I think you would end up with a warped mess. MIG is not so great for hammer welding, you can do it, it just takes a lot of time, and the results still are not as good, the weld bead will always be hard to work.

 

Looks good, if you can weld up a hood without much warpage, you're a real metal master!
Love seeing your progress posts on this car.

 

lookin good ..

 

That means a lot coming from you!

Metal master? I dont think so, Im pretty new at this, maybe one day! Several people warned against doing this, and though it was risky to weld two seams down a low crown hood. Ive been hammer welding in patches with the henrob for a few months now, and besides getting the hang of it, find it much more enjoyable and gratifying of a proccess over MIG welding them.

I decided I was going to prove it to myself I could weld this hood successfuly. I wleded the hood up on the car, welding about 3/4" inch at a time, then opened the hood, and hammered (on dolly) on the weld to remove any distortion (usualy an upward bulge, but when the heat moved it downward, I banged it upward with a high crown dolly, then hammerd it flat with a low crown dolly) on each weld before proceeding. I wound up with a few slight high spots (but no oil canning) from over stretching when hammering the welds, but it was nothing a few zaps from a stud gun didnt shrink down perfectly.

A little more metal finishing, and it will be ready for a few coats of Slick N Sand.

 

I just noticed this first time, looks great!

 

I missed it before too. Thanks for bringing it back up so I could see it.

Great idea Chad, the narrowed center strip really shows off the taper much better.