I have a friend thats been fighting hood fitment issues on his 32 sedan using a repop shell. The drivers side fits smurfectly but the passenger side had a 1/4" gap at the worst possible spot, the center of the curve. If you allowed the gap to close the rear of the hood would overlap the cowl, we slid a gennie 32 shell on and the hood fit just like its supposed to so we figured it had to be the nose. Sorry forgot the camera for this part but I can walk you thru it without em. Start by installing everything and shimming the front and rear of the hoodsides so the gaps are even, then measure from the nose out to the hood and mark the amount of movement needed. You should do this in several places. this is what you want to have when you pull it off to start the repair. Make sure that you mark where to stop the stretch too. next make a template that matches the curve and mark it the same as the nose. measure and mark the template for the new curve and play connect the dots. Here's a vid on how ya pull that off. (sorry for the clicking and the loud music, camera has better microphone than it has a focuser.) The cat refuses to apologize for anything, I should fire him. Then cut your template to the new line. set that stuff aside and grab a hammer, I like to make the patch for the corner before I cut anything so I know the contour is close. Handy trick>>>>> to get the shape in the patch I use a cutoff deadblow hammer as the lower dolly, you get a nice rounded shape in a hurry and dont have to listen to that annoying pink pink pink sound. You should only have to make one relief cut to get this done but its in the worst part of the curve. There will need to be a cut from 0 to 0 along the backside between the hood lip and the outer skin as we dont need to move the hood, just the outer skin. Push/prod/pry the outer skin to fit the template and tack a couple bridges in to hold it in place. Now we are ready for a test fit,, (thems my buddy's hands, mine have less wrinkles) Looks like we got a good fit and without shimming the hoodsides it sits just where we want it so lets get to filling the holes! lets start with the outside first. Hold you premade patch to the inside of the hole and mark it for cutting. Nifty trick number 2>>> make your patch slightly bigger than the hole so it spreads things open just a bit more than needed. With a bit of practice this will eliminate a bunch of stretching. Make sure it fits tight and dont let it escape as your tacking it in place. You really need to keep it all flush to save a bunch of hammering later. (dont worry I got a couple tricks up my sleeve if it does get away from ya) I went ahead and put the first bend for the rear lip in it before welding, the rest of it will get hammered/pliered in after. If you see it trying to get out of the hole stop welding and grind the finished welds down and tap in back into place, then continue to weld.
Once its all welded up grind down the welds just proud of the parent metal on both sides. Now we can get to hammering. If you made your patch oversized the only part of this prject that will need to be stretched is the point of the pie, circled below. (and it wont need a lot either) once you get that part stretched grab a file and start working just that point. for the rest of hammering we are dealing with misplaced metal. its the right size but slightly out of shape. To correct this I use that same soft dolly and tap the low spots only from the backside again circled below. continue to tap/file until your happy with the shape then go back and weld up any pinholes, those spots will need a slight amount of stretching before you run the file back over them. It doesnt take long and you'll be to the point that a heavy coat of primer will fill the low spots. Now we can fill in that horrendous gap on the backside.
cut the tack and remove one of the bridges holding it open so you can fit your patch again just slightly oversize so you dont have to do a bunch of stretching. There is a built in cheat here as you are welding between a couple 90 degree bends so it wont move a lot anyway. try and keep the gaps to a minimum and make sure it stays somewhat flush. This ones not as critical as the outside piece because its mostly covered when finished. weld it in place and grind smooth, then cut the other bridge out and repeat the above steps. Now you can bend and finish welding the outer lip, then file it to shape. I'll post up pics of it installed and mocked up tomorrow when I take it back to Dickie's.
Did you guys have to move the radiator cap as well? I'd say 9 our of 10 repopped shells I see the cap is way off. . . . awesome work by the way.
Thanks for the responces and I hope this helps a few of ya's out. I'll post the rest of the pics when I find my camera. As for the soft dolly, I use that one a lot, once you get some practice you'll find its a very handy thing to have. I banned the cats to the office, Harvey cant weld for shit and Bird doesnt understand why she cant hold the hammer correctly. I'm sure I'll hear from thier union steward for the contract violation. No way I do this to a gal, I like having them 2 different sizes,, breaks up the monotony, Besides they make funny noises and turn strange colors when you hit them with a hammer. Thankfully this shell is a smooth with no cap. My friend Dick has been working on this car for 5 years or more and I was really glad to help him get past this and hopefully come springtime he'll be driving it. It the same car I did this for: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144467 Thanks again for looking!
Nice tech, I especially like the tip of making the patch a bit oversized. Its the tips like this that help so many of us in the future. Thanks!
This one can't weld either... however we think that her skills lie elsewhere she has a "Kill" rate of 5 critters a week...! We named her "Sweety"... but I call her "Kitty Whoop Ass"! Pretty impressive for a 9 pound Calico! Looks like your cat can do bookwork... smart move transferring pussin boots to the office!
Dickie wasnt sure but he thinks its Vintiques, he knows its not a Brookville as he has used thiers and had no issues with it. thanx agian for looking!
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