Technical How do you "peak" a hood?

One of my projects is a 49 Chevy truck.I plan to chop the top a couple inches and section the hood to reduce the bulbous nose. I would also like to have a small peak in the hood. I ran across a picture of one this morning and the builder had done a beautiful perfect job. The hood as it comes from the factory is a two piece hood, so there is a flange in the center and a metal strip. That is what seems to make putting a peak in the hood much more difficult. Any suggestions on a good way to peak a hood like this?

 

Slice a three inch section out of the center of the hood, and weld in a three inch strip of steel with a peak bent into it.

 

I'd bend up a piece of round stock to fit the stock contour and weld it over the seam.

 

Agree with above^^^ take the piece of metal and make a form for the shape you want , stick in a vise and hammer form the peak . Metal finish and weld in careful to avoid warping either piece.

 

If you choose to use the rod method be aware that one side of the hood will warp down and the other side will warp up. With the flanges and the metal rod in the way you will not be able to shrink the metal back to the correct place.
Don't ask me how I know this! I will say though that it is hard to find a nice hood when you need one!

 

A good friend of mine and my boss did this just over a year ago on a 40 ford truck and one cool little trick they used was to set up one of those leveling lasers side ways and find front center of the truck and hood and then point the laser down the hood.

They used the laser to keep the peak dead straight down the hood as they tacked it in place and then again when they did the finish body work down the peak before painting. That peak is dead center and dead on straight.

I was impressed by their ingenuity !!

 

I took a 3" wide strip of 18 gauge, bent it 90 degrees and then flattened it in my press. Also, since my Buick hood has a trough in it for the center chrome piece and, since I don't want to slice a piece out of the middle and attempt to buttweld it, I am going to use automotive panel adhesive to glue it in and then use AllMetal to smooth it. Also, I JB Welded some #10 machine screws to the backside to pull it down and hold it in place while the glue sets up.

 

The 42 coupe I’m building for my daughter I used a piece of rod, but you have to be very careful about warpage on the sheet metal

 

I really screwed up the original hood on my 48 Plymouth coupe by welding a rod down the center. Originally it was a 2 piece with a molding down the center, that allowed rain to get into a motor. I'm a welder by trade, I thought I could control the warp. I was really wrong. I was also wrong when I thought I would be able to remove much of that warp.

This year, while I had the car apart, I removed large pieces of filler almost a 1/2" thick. Then I cut about 3" out of the center, and attempted to remove the warp out of both hood sides (mildly successful), then I weld the center piece in. Lets say its much, much better then it was, but there is a lot more filler in the hood then I would like.

As said before, good hoods are hard to find, then I'd have to try to fill the seem again. I think Rockable's method is probably a better method then trying to weld it together. Gene

 

Here is a picture of the 42 Chevy hood that I peaked with a rod

 

Would spot welding work ?

 

Cutting down the center of your hood will open a can of "warping" worms.

 

I wouldn’t spot weld it won’t be stable enough to keep any filler in place. Also will leave a place to trap moisture.

 

Many years ago (1965) I peaked the hood on my 53 Chevy using fiberglass cloth and Bondo.
Lots of work but, it came out good and never cracked or flaked. I bet today's improved
body filler, like All Metal, would work very well. Give that a try first before you start
cutting, welding and warping. No one will ever know the difference.

 

Jersey Mike was kind enough to supply me with a long piece of steel, with a nicely shaped bead in it, he made for his bead roller. Put a couple extra supports under the hood and went to town. It si NOT easy to control the warpage, but using TIG or gas, keeps the welds soft and easier to manipulate.

 

LOL This is doable ^^^ it never occurred to me to do it this way.

I usually use a piece of brake line or fuel line. Then lead or mud it after it is welded in place.

 

Never done it but I've heard if you use a hollow tube instead of a solid rod that will help the heat dissipate a little better.

Sent from my SM-A205U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

All of these are very nice examples. ChopOlds, are those surface welds rather than butt welds ?

Below are some pictures of a truck I like, but I also like a slightly more pronounced peak .

 

Many years ago I peaked my '40 Chevy hood with tubing by spot welding it. Finished it off with filler. It held up good but eventually I decided to strip it and louver it. I carefully removed the peak after punching the louvers. Had a little trouble with the center but got it back in shape reasonably well. When I finished it I made a bull nose out of two of the stock stainless trim pieces that goes behind the hood bird (or whatever it is). I joined the two pieces together with piece of aluminum shaped to fit tightly inside the trim. Looks good and I can't see the butt joint going down the road.

Yes, welding the halves together is a pissy job!

 

@rockable and @ekimneirbo ......Several years ago I peaked the hood for my GMC AD series pickup attached by the method you mention. I first experimented with a short strip of metal to see how much it narrowed when I ran it through my bead roller to the depth of peak I wanted. Once I had that figured out. I sheared a long strip and went to work running it through the bead roller. It was very difficult to control the strip freehand. I ended up making a guide from a piece of angle iron and that solved that problem on the second try.

I did tack weld the two halves along the joint, then used panel adhesive to a bond the beaded strip into the recess on the hood. A thin coat of body filler bridged the ‘seam’ of the strip to hood panel. I did tack weld the ends of the strip to the hood, front and rear.

I may have some pics of the hood in primer, if I can find them. If I do, I’ll post here.

Ray

 

I thought about bead rolling it but the method I used produced a nice straight piece. I experimented with several scraps before I made the final piece and trimmed it to fit. I also used the shrinker to put a slight downward bend in it to follow the contour of the hood.

 

If you want to have any control of the warpage after welding, it must be a tight butte weld! On something flat like a hood, it's easy to get out of control, so I tack, hammer and dolly, tack, hammer and dolly. Keep it straight. Then do small stitches and hammer as you go along. Still had to use some filler, but less than 1/8".

 

Did you make the strip bow to follow the front contour before beading it

 

No, it was not necessary to do that. The curvature of the hood is a large enough radius that I could gently bend the beaded strip to follow with no visible change in shape.

edit: I did this project probably ten years ago. What I am struggling to remember accurately is whether I made the strip wider than final dimension in order to better control it when bead rolling. I know I thought doing that would make trimming it to width more difficult, but just can't say for certain what I decided. In any case, that's really a relatively minor concern.

Ray