Anyone out the care to do a tutorial on unskinning a 50s hood? Not only detailing process but tools commonly used. Pictures would be specially useful.
By no means a pro but will see if I can find some photos of when I did a hood and a trunk lid. Process is the same as reskinning a door and you'll probably have more luck finding tech articles in that. It's getting that huge floppy piece of metal back on that's the tricky bit.
I pull braces out all the time for louvering a hood, but kinda doubt the need to "reskin" a hood. I'd just look for a new one if it's that bad.
not really sure what you're after here...you have to cut the spot welds around the outside, and remove the skin. I used a 3" cutoff wheel. I did this one for my Chevy II, but I was just lightening it, I left the bracing off, and made my own bracing from thinwall round tube. I cut the edges even with the spot welds, so the skin is a bit smaller than original. Probably not much help. The hood weighed 50 lbs when I started, it weighs 25 now.
Okay, that's why I stated what I stated and the way I said it. When I do a hood, I simply cut the braces out of the way where I intend to work, leaving lot's of room around the area, then weld the braces back in. That's more than enough work as it sits without completely removing then replacing the entire skin. In removing the whole skin and replacing it, you have lots more work with setting gaps, controlling warp, and controlling general fit. Now, if I have convinced you to remove and replace the bracing, block the hood up on a flat surface so that it is laying neutral. Then take note of what ever you nave used at the corners to shim it to that state so that you can replicate it later. Use a very thin 3" cutoff wheel on a die grinder for removal, making sure you are giving your guy's press enough room to do what he has to do. After your hood is back from the louver shop, block it back up on the flat surface THE EXACT SAME WAY IT WAS WHEN YOU CUT IT OUT, clean the paint and prime off of the areas to be welded, and drop the brace back in place. I use worn out cut off wheels of the EXACT SAME THICKNESS to shim gaps where I made my cuts, and weld it all back together. make sure you skip all around the hood as you do this work, as too much heat in any one location will draw a warp into things that will make you crazy trying to get stuff to fit. If all this sound like a lot of work, (and it is), call me, drop it on a Grey Hound bus bound for Phoenix, and I guarantee it'll fit and look spectacular when it comes back to you!!!
Quinn, that's exactly the process I normally use when louvering a hood. But this one is for me and am thinking it would be interesting in removing the support structure complete and uncut. So am still interested in knowing any tricks, procedure and tools used with bending the lip up to remove the core structure. And of course putting it all back together properly aligned.
Gotcha Zapato One of those "I wanna do it cause I (think) I can kinda deals! Never having done this, the one thing I can think of is drilling a small hole (10/32 sized) at each corner before starting to take stuff apart so that you can drop a screw though to reference alignment during re assembly. That's about all I've got though...
I'd have to think that you would end up creating far more work for yourself and a lot bigger chance of distorting the hood by pulling the whole reinforcement panel out.
Drilling a few holes for some screws or clecos before you pull it apart is a good idea. I tend to do that a lot whenever seprating sheetmetal but boy it was a bitch getting the 51 merc trunk skin in the right place. What kind of hood are we talking?
If memory serves, that hood has a fairly standard 1/4" flange all the way around. I think I would grab a cheap wood chisel and dull it down just a touch, and use the flat side against the inner structure. That's all I've got.
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