I am about to weld the gap down the center of my 1952 chevy hood I was wondering if anyone had some tips for me before I start. I know to just weld a little section at a time to avoid warpage. Is it a good idea to cool the weld with a wet rag? should I leave the hood on the car or can it be taken off? thanks for any help it is really appreciated. -Jimbo
no matter how hard you try, the metal is going to warp somewhat. keep the hood on the car, latched down like you would when your driving it. if you cant latch it down, tack weld it down on the sides where the gaps and everything else is the way you want it to look when its a functioning hood. doing that will act kinda like a jig and allow the metal to not move when you weld up the center. as for cooling with a wet rag, water makes welds harder. glass is harder than steel but steel is stronger. steel will flex with pressure, glass will break. the harder something is, the more likely it is to break. you want your weld to be strong, not hard. i doubt the center of your hood will be getting alot of pressure applied, and probably shouldnt be worried about it, but its something to keep in mind. i would let it air cool. you can let it sit for a while after the welding, or take a air hose and a high pressure nozzle thing and cool it that way, like 10 times faster. as definetly want to weld only a little at a time. i would weld a 1/2"- 3/4" spot at a time, then skip at least a foot and place another weld, then skip another foot, and so on. only start welding on a spot when you can hold your fingers on the weld for at least 20 seconds, then it should be okay to place another 1/2"- 3/4" weld and skip to the next weld in line. email me or pm me if none of that made sense or if i can help you anymore, lawrence.
oooohhh, MIG or TIG only. stick will burn right through. keep your amps down or it will burn through, too. but i'm sure you already knew that. hope i have been of help.
There have been quite a few discussions on here on this very same topic. Usually it's after the guy has spent a day welding and has warped the hood every which way possible. MY suggestion would be to not even attempt to just weld the factory seam closed as is. With the stock seam and downward angled "lips", there's no way to hammer your welds to control warpage. MY suggestion would be to set the hood up on a firm surface such as a steel table (and maybe even tack it in place). Cut out 6 inches of the seam (an inch or so on either side of the seam) at a time. Use your newly fabbed patch panel to scribe perfect fit lines. Hammer weld in. Don't try to run a bead. Smack every weld firmly with flat faced hammer and firmly held dolly. Don't use water or air. Move your tack welds around.
That may be a little premature Your about to undertake one of the more difficult modifications. How much welding have you done? Are you really good at hammer welding with gas? Do you have another hood? My prefered method is to tack the seam with a mig, remove the hood, cut away the flange, and hammer weld with gas. I'm planning to peak the hood on my Stude. It has a 1/2" recessed area for the molding that will have to be removed so it will get two welds full length. I'm not going to attempt it untill I find a back up hood Good luck!
some guys lay a 1/8 or 3/16th rod down the center of the hood; makes a nice little peak down the center.....
my welding ability is alright i guess ive just done a couple tack welds so far I am by no means a welding expert just what i've learned in school am I in way over my head this is my first attempt at anything like this should I just walk away or is it something I may be able to do I guess if I mess up I buy a new hood there is only one way to learn things... -Jimbo
Hey, Jimbo, I'd be more inclind to solder (lead) in that seam, than weld it. There is alot of low crowned metal in the flat of that hood that won't like the six thousand-plus degree welding heat. Tack, with your squirt gun welder, every twelve to eighteen inches bottom to top. When the welds cool , grind flush and remove paint for three inches from each side of the seam. Tin and flow a good bead of 30/70 solder down the seam length. Now let the panel cool, and file the lead to shape. Do not grind or shape it with a da. Swankey Devils C.C.
I hate to discourge anyone, but it really sounds like you should start with some easier projects and work your way up to this one. I like the idea of leading the seam, but again if you haven't leaded before, you might want to start smaller and work your way up. If you do lead it, I'd seperate the two hood sides, clean and tin the flanges, then put it back together so that the flanges are sweated together.
You guys just scared me away from doing this on my new purchase. With the best of intentions though...thanks. Guess that I will peak it
dont even use heat at all..are you gonna peak the hood when welded? or gonna grind it a wipe it?..use duramix...it want warp at all cause theres no heat..and you can even use duramix to peak the hood as well..... take the hood apart in the center grind it down to bare metal inside where its put together..clean it very well..run a 2 beads of duramix in the center..then go from under side of hood and clamp the 2 peices back together..let dry overnight...if you want to peak it..sand it down with a D A flat..on both sides of the seam..measure 3'' on both sides..run 2 straight lines for a guide from front of the hood to the back of the hood..then get a block of wood 6'' wide notch the peak size you want in the bottom of your 6'' block in the center..run a thick bead of duramix down the center of the hood again ..use the notch block and your guides to finish your bead off.. when its cured you can sand it do a little fill in and prime it..time consuming..but theres no warpage...it will never crack ..there for life
Did a Chebby hood many years ago B.B. (before bondo) using low temp silver solder (think it is called Easy-Flo). Minimal warpage.
Solder is a good option. It takes big balls and plenty of experience to do it with a weld. Even the best have it move around some. But part of being a pro at this shit is how to get out of trouble when you get in it...and when! Here's a tip I learned recently from an old fucker lookin for an easier way to do lead. He used a heat gun. Most lead melts below 500deg and a commercial heat gun can run as high as 750. This is of course after it's tinned. Worth a shot. Do a search on lead here. Lots of tech on that. The tinning/cleaning process before you build is EVERYTHING. In the meantime, good luck with it.
Did my 52 a couple of years ago using a mig. Didn't come out all that bad but it's just another part of my car that's in primer waiting for me to get around to finishing it off properly. It did have some fairly major warpage despit lots of care and patience. If I did it now, I'd still do it but I'd do it different. (I now know how to hammer weld) Pete
Just to put things into perspecitve regading to welding... erring on the side of taking too long seems to be better. Some of the more successful jobs that I know if took a lot longer than a Saturday afternoon. Some were even done over a couple week's time. Like make a couple tacks, then go do something else for a while. The comment about being able to keep your fingers on the weld is good. It's ok if it feels warm, just not hot. (Unless you're doing it in Texas this weekend... then the whole hood is already too hot to touch! ).
I've used lead on two 53 chevy hoods and it works well. The last one I used a mig welder to just tack the very back of the seam, then I tacked in the middle, and then I tacked in the front. Very little but it adds to the stability of the hood. Then just buy some solder, melt it down with a torch and lay it in the seam, when it's in between molten and solid, squash it with a paddle. My paddle is made out of some scrap wood I coated in flux and torched a little so the lead won't stick to it. Afterwards, make some mud out of baking soda and water and rub the seam. This will make sure the primer sticks to it. The goal is in the end, you have 1 solid peice of lead all the way down the hood and pressed deep into the seam. When filling in the holes where the hood bird goes, practice makes perfect but watch your toes when a hot lead booger rolls out of there. I fill a huge mound around and on top of the holes where the hood bird goes, then I let it turn to solid, and then gently apply flame to make it just soft enough to press down in the hole. Then let it cool again. There's only like a 5 or 10 degree window there so practice on it, you'll get it right. Then I drill holes in the seam every 2" and throw in pop rivits, this further pressed the lead to hold it in place. Drill slow, don't press on it and force it to go fast. The end result is a hood you can shake and bend and damn near stand on and it always looks awesome. There's solid and rosin core solder, I mostly use thick rosin core spooled solder. It applies very well and sticks very well. You also don't have to flux the steel before applying but I usually do anyway. Oh and several hours later, take a DA and some 80grit and smooth it out. Even though bare metal, you'll have a hard time spotting the seam after that and it's very durable. 60/40 Lead/Tin cools down to get harder than the solder but short of melting and mixing my own body solder, I don't know where I can get a few 60/40 Lead/Tin rods. I know some guys will melt tin onto the steel first then apply solid lead but the lead is pretty soft when it cools.
MAN, I'm glad I checked this out! I was get'n ready to do the same thing to my hood,but now I believe I will move on to something a little more in my realm of abillity,like change the oil or rotate my tires!
burnt dude it's easy, I'm gonna start on my 3rd hood here soon. I can help you anytime with my method but if you're planning on mig welding it, you're on your own there man.
Practice the lead first on something so you know the temp you need to use to make the "flow" right once you get it you got it. it will be alot easyer to not burn or warp yer hood. Also if you run to hot (chip in on this guys if you know ) the lead could run through the seam and burn up stuff on the motor i'd guess.
yeah the first one I did was my own. It has acrylic enamel on it and I couldn't ever figure why it would always crack down the seam line, then that's when I realized it was the flux and the rosin that was doing it. After taking it down with sandpaper and using baking soda, it eliminated the problem. Now it has acrylic enamel on it and it's solid as can be. If you don't use baking soda, it will crack, just remember that. To further prevent cracking, I use tiny mig welds in key locations and pop rivets along the seam underneath as mentioned above. The second one I did is in primer and only one coat and you still can't tell where the seam used to be. The third one will also be in primer probably for it's life. I first learned on my own daily driver 53 bel air and that's how I got it down, then another 53 210 and next is another 53 bel air. Mine has a subtle bullnose, the second was is a seam fill only so where it peaks in the front, it's squared, actually looks good. Photos: You can see how nasty it looks when you're working on em, I included photos of a seam being done and door handles being filled in. the door handles are filled with lead only and I dare you to try to push that lead through or break it out, or even find exactly where the holes used to be now. The two nose shots are of my car, blue pearl is the way it is now and the black primer is shortly after the hood seam was done. I've changed colors a lot, it's actually in the shop now in between coats of super jet black. Now the black one it almost looked crooked but it isn't, it's smudges from bastards running their fingers across it.. actually I think I'm the bastard that did it.
by the way I'm in the habbit of saying "lead" but the product I use is actually lead free, it's rosin core solder.
Yeah, hot lead booger. I was filling in the hood bird holes one time and wasn't paying attention, got it too hot so it all rolled right out, hit the radiator and splashed nailing everyone around me. No serious burns but it sure didn't tickle. See my motor was all dusty from all the body work so what little hit it didn't effect anything, just fell right off. I never did it but yeah if you want to you could throw some some of your sheet metal stock over the engine. I never had a hot booger fall through the seam but I suppose if you got it way too hot that could happen. It's those holes that you have to watch. It would be soooo much easier if you could take your hood off and do it but that's just not practical and may result in an uneven seam anyway. It really needs to be filled in while on the car and latched, until you get to the front anyway. I do the very front with the hood wide open and standing on a step stool just so gravity helps with some of the work. When filling holes, you'll want enough pressed through to the other side to cool back down, then heat up from the back and press again, this makes like a lead rivet so it's very solid on both sides. Oh another important thing, when filling holes take ball pein hammer and hit the hole first to form what I call a bowl for the lead. After all you're going to want to sand it down and make it flush right? but you want that lead to stick to a good surface area and that's how you do it. The "bowl" should barely even be noticable. Just enough so it doesn't all sand away. Yes I use sandpaper and not grinders or files, it takes longer but it's smoother and never takes off too much material or cuts too deep which will make you have to go back over it with either body filler or more lead. But yeah, choptop50 says and I said earlier, watch out for hot lead boogers.
I got some 1/8 steel rod, bent it to the curve of the hood. Tacked it on. One tack at a time at least a foot of so away from each other, cooling it with the air hose.
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