custom body work question

What's the best way to fill the seam on the hood of my '50 Chev? I've been told to weld it but I've also been told to use some sort of a flexible "bondo" (of sorts) and just smooth it out that way. I want to smooth my hood out but I'm just trying to figure out the best way of doing it. Any ideas?

 

are you trying to peak your hood or flatten the seam and fill?

 

Most often, Chevy hood seams are peaked with roundrod. If you're just trying to flatten and smooth the seam, weld it up as best you can. Be sure to clean the snot out of the seam before you weld it and weld it fully. Seams are usually prone to cracking because they were intended to flex at that point when piece was designed.

Whatever you do, weld it. Don't use only a filler.

 

Trying to flatten it.

 

I've done it on a '54 hood, and am going to to it on my hood soon. The way I do it is, clean out the seam, support the back/middle of the hood with whatever is big enough the support it (I did it with the hood off) and weld it up making sure to go slow enough the curb warpage.

 

I'm just getting the **** scared out of me because everyone is freaking out about warping and pop-canning the hood. I would think that if you turned the heat way down and tacked every 12 inches or so...after about 871 mini-tacks, a person should have a welded and un-warped hood.

 

That's the other thing I keep hearing about. "Supporting the hood". I plan to do mine with it off of the car also. What supporting do you mean?

 

Don't be afraid of welding it. You have the right idea to do it in a series of tack welds. But don't weld it all up then grind it, do a series of tacks, then knock them down to just above the parent metal, then another series of tacks, grind untill done, then you can do your finish grinding. Make sure to keep heat down while your grinding too.

 

When I did it before, I think what I used was a house paint can, just so the back/middle of the hood has some sort of support under it.

 

Did your hood have "holes" in the seam where the hood ornament went? What did you do when you got there?

 

Yea it had the holes. I made little patches to fit in, but I guess you could just fill it with weld if you went slow. I would prefer little patches though.

 

Ta hell with it! I'm going to try it. Better to f--k up and have to buy a hood than pay the $1500 a rod shop I found wants for doing it.

 

Definately weld it, but I would recommend not just welding the joint where the two fanges meet, that is going to lock in whatever shape you get after you weld it, it will be like a big reinforcing rib.

My take:

I'd separate the hood into two. Cut off the flange but leave 1/4" or so hanging down.

Hammer that 1/4" of leftover flange out "flat" to match the hood shape. It should move pretty easily.

Fix any cracks or dents in the hood halves

Fit the hood to the car, use some solid spacers (1/8" or 3/16" flat bar) as spacers to establish the hood gap all around the edges. Tack weld the hood sides to the fenders with the spacers in place.

Make sure the "take off" between the two hood sides is just right.

At this point you have one side slightly overlapping the other. Scribe a line right on this edge.

Remove the upper hood half and trim with some snips right on your scribe line.

Re-fit the hood half you removed. and make sure everything is lined up.

You can either use "panel clamps" or clecos with metal bridge strips to hold the edges together.

Tack every inch or so, make sure things stay lined up as you go.

Hammer and dolly the seam to get it as perfect as you can.

I'd probably double up on the tacks at this point and re-hammer it.

Then weld a section, let it cool, hammer out any shrinkage from welding, and repeat until it's solid.

You may end up with a oil can no matter how you approach it, but this way you can fix it. Fixing the oil can is all about carefully evaluating what needs to change, make a small change and check to see that things are moving in the right direction. Oil cans from welding, ***uming the fit and shape were right on before you started welding, are likely places along the weld that have shrunk from welding. Hammering on-dolly will stretch them and raise that area .

You will probably have to pull the hood off before you can finish welding it, but the more you do while it's in place on the car the better I think.

 

.....and now you're a little closer to understanding why the rod shop wants what they want to do it. Of course your own time should run you a little cheaper! No getting around the fact that if you want it done right it'll take time. A quick bodge job welding the seam closed will always be just that.

Barry

 

Of course, if you left the rib, and welded or bolted it inside on the seam in a few spots, it would make it harder for it to change shape as you weld the top of it, too. Or am I way off on my thinking?

 

Mine was left on the car, still bolted together, and welded with many tacks alternating from one end to the other to minimize warping. Only done twelve months ago but still
good as.
Rod

 

If you want it done right, this is the way. It depends on your skill in welding and hammer/dolly as to what you do though. With the hood open you will see the difference on the underside. Use a TIG not a MIG.

 

********...

 

You need to weld it.
If you weld it there will be shrinkage. No matter how you do it.
Hammer out the shrinkage as you go
Welding and filling areas like hoods are some of the toughest jobs there are.
Take your time.. you wont regret the hours

 

...which part, or all of it? Care to elaborate as to why?

 

The issues I see with leaving the rib are:

1. More welding heat is required -- you have a small fillet where the two flanges turn down so you can't do a tidy fusion weld, you'll end up laying in a lot more filler metal. Also the flange will draw heat from the weld area, so you'll end up having to run slightly hotter.

2. There is likely to be rust between the flanges, which is going to cause problems down the road.

That said, if you don't have the bucks to pay someone to do a top-notch job (ask how they are going to do it before!) and aren't confident of your skills you can certainly mig weld the hood with the flange in place. I'd use lots of tacks -- space them at 1", then come back and split the difference, then repeat till it's continuous. If you work carefully you can certainly do a decent job.

It's your car, have fun with it.

 

Not that I'm questioning that this is the proper way to do this at all. But MY GOD, that sounds like a lot of work. I know the rod shop I found wasn't going to go to all of that trouble. How did the boys back in the day do this?

 

Although jmcglynn is right in how it should be done you could go about it this way. Take the hood apart and clean the flange up, get it down to bare metal and then put a weld thru primer on it. Put it all back together and weld it up using tacks and taking your time. The primer won't burn off like the factory paint will and will leave you with at least some corrosion protection between the two panels.

 

Back in the day like George Barris? He would probably have brazed it and then leaded over it.

Back in the day these were common cars, and they were built to a different standard.

The difference is that, properly done, you end up with a hood that is as nice on the bottom as the top, and it has very little (if any) filler in it.

like I said, unless you're getting paid to do the work you only have to please yourself.

 

its really not that hard to do and little patience goes a long way.
above everything else, taking your time is key to a good job.

first let me say that a tig welder is best for sheet metal work and gas welding comes in 2nd.
I don't have a tig welder, yet.... and I am tired of making ruffle potato chips out of good sheet metal when I try to gas weld, so I mig weld.

victim,


ya gotta start with clean metal so I had my hood "dipped" to remove paint and undercoating then shoot it with some good primer,sanded the good primer off the seam then bolted it back on , lined it up, braced it underneath ( sorry no pictures ).


I wire brush imminently after each weld to help cool the weld slowly and keep the heat from traveling outward and warping the hood. I don't use air, it cools the weld too fast and it can make the weld shrink too much, pulling in the surrounding sheet metal and creating a low spot.


I wanted my hood fully shaved, without the seam on the front.
to do this it required removing the "fold" or pinch seam on the front half of the hood.



at the top of this picture you can see part of the "fold" cut away to fully shave the front of my hood.




no more pictures before the mud went on but needless to say I welded the seam up solid.
it took my about 10 hours to fully weld the seam, allowing the hood to cool between each spot weld session.
you can warp your hood just as easy grinding the weld as you can welding so take it slow and don't grind too long in any one spot for more then a few seconds, then move 12" and grind some more, let cool and start grinding again.

 

The only problem with removing the inner flange is that the hood will then be less rigid and more prone to warping for a not-so-great welder like myself. I agree with taking it apart. cleaning it, and put it back together and then weld. But I would definitely tack it to the fenders to make sure nothing is moving. My 2 cents.

 

280 hrs after starting the task, then you'll be close to finishing it up.....if you choose the TIG route. Carl Hagan

 

See, that hood on your '54 is exactly what I want mine to look like. Completely smooth. Looks bad-***.

 

Mine doesn't have that large split at the front though.

 

I'm with Joe on this, gas welding the metal ****ed together is a better way to go. I would tack every inch, then weld 4"-6" at a time knowing that getting the contours back is not that hard if you know that you need to stretch only the weld and the area next to the weld that turns blue. This could go pretty fast if you have confidence in your gas welding, stretching, and smoothing ability. Much faster than mig welding, and a better job in the end.

I have done a lot of tacking, waiting until the metal is cool etc, and the fact is, at least with gas and tig, you are slowing yourself down for no good reason. Welding a long weld and stretching it is much faster, and is just as easy to metal-finish.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com