Hi guys, I am peaking the hood on my 53 Chev truck ,because almost everyone else fills them . I have a nice flat hood to work with . I have solid welded the front of the hood and filled the emblem holes, and because of all of the shape in this area ,I don't have any warping. All of the articles I have seen involve welding a rod down the center and grinding the peak, or spot welding the rod and using filler. I even saw some guy at a show that claimed he just formed his out of Bondo... (I always wondered how that looked the next year... ) . My question is this. I have a nice recess about 3/4 of an inch wide where the stock trim sat. If I made a filler piece with a peak formed in it,and used some of the latest epoxy adhesives to glue it in,I would seal the area from moisture, and only need to fill the very small joint seam . The biggest bonus would be that I wouldn't be putting all of that heat into the hood that I would have to fix. Do any of you have any experience with these adhesives,are there problems with this plan that I don't see, Or is there another way to do this that works better ? Thanks for any thoughts.
i haven't used the glue. but if ya have question about welding it, i can give ya some tips . side note a few companys glue whole roofs on with no welds . but in sure that traditional police will cry about it . I say f them and try it . so it cracks you fix it . at least you have the gonas to try something and learn from it . I like welding it ..but i can take some time to do it slow,...good luck lad
I worked in a body shop for fifteen years. use 3m structure adhesive, grind the surfaces good,and it should work out real good for you.
I have used adhesives from 3M to bond quarter panels and what not. They do work, and some factory replacements recommend it on new car junk haha. I used to do a lot of body work and it does work, but i still like to weld everything. If you were to try using filler at all, i would make your peak out of sheetmetal, or solid stock(not sure what contour your looking for) and stitch weld it in. Instead of using plastic body filler(bondo) i would use a fiberglass reinforced filler like Evercoats Kitty Hair. Its very small strands of fiberglass, but is tough as hell and waterproof. Spread that on like body filler, and rough it out. then you can use plastic filler over that and block sand it and get it smooth. My buddies dad owned a sandblast company for 30 yrs, and he used to do a lot of car frames and bodies for restoration work, and he told me he had already blasted car bodies that had previous bodywork done and if there was any fiberglass filler that you could blow through the sheetmetal on the car before you would blow through the fiberglass filler. Im not saying this is the best way to peak a hood, but if your gonna use filler to shape it, dont use str8 plastic filler because anything over 1/8- 3/16" will eventually crack for the most part, especially on a hood. Sorry this is so long, crap! haha
I guess my biggest worry is the heat. I have seen custom hoods that are easily 150lbs because of the lead filler to smooth out bellies that you can see on the underside. I think Street Rodder did a test of a patch panel in the center of a door a few years ago that started me thinking this way.As far as the traditional police,I think that if Westergard had access to current technology, he would have used it , and it would not have affected his designs negatively at all. As far as the profile, I am thinking of a fairly sharp top with radiused sides into the hood standing 3/8-1/2" up, and just flowing into the vertical front of the hood. I may continue the peak across the filled vent to the split window trim, but I will weld all of that. Thanks for your input
tig it. heat problem solved. I do like the glue idea though. i use it alot for new cars. not bad stuff. and who is going to know if its painted over.
PKap, Take a look at Rod And Customs Web site. They did a article on peaking a hood on a '54 Chevy car hood. The article is called "Boyz and A Hood". The article is in the "Tech" section of the home page. Troy Ladd and some of the guys from Hollywood Hot Rods do a article on the technique I think I'm going to use when I peak my hood. There are some great posts on here about "Peaking A Hood". Try to do a search in all the forums. Good Luck & keep us posted on how it goes.
yea there are many ways to do it, like i said, i prefer welding cause thats what i do haha. But i understand the heat issue to, but like it was said, if you can TIG weld it, and do very minimal grinding, welding it completely isnt much of a problem. Adhesives are nice for new vehicles because most of your panels are 22 guage, 20 if your lucky and welding without warpage takes a lot of time. Old stuff was made good, thicker steel, easier to weld without distortion. Ill throw you another tip, even if you weld the whole thing, and you go back to do your filler work, still use the kitty hair over the welded joints. fills in any tiny voids and keeps moisture out!
Thanks for the input guys , I looked at all the other threads I could find, but I haven't found any one who had tried this.I think I will try to do it this way and see how it goes. I don't have a tig machine, and I hate trying to work mig welds on big panels. It's just steel, so if it doesnt work, I can always do it again.
The only thing I might be concern about is the fact that the because the edges of your peaked piece of metal will be glued down to another piece of metal under it it may expand and contract under temp changes differently than the surrounding areas which could lead to mapping (the seam showing throught the paint) at a later date. I know when guys use adhesives to create a lap type joint to fix rusted quarter panels etc. the seam almost always shows through later on regardless of what material is put over top of the seam. The problem is the areas where there are two layers of metal expand and contract at different rates than the area where there is only one layer and it causes the paint to sink or crack along those seams making the seam visible in the finish. Not sure if the same would happen on your hood or not but the problem is you don't know if it will happen until after the panel has been painted and has cycled through a few temp. changes. The adhesives will be plenty strong enough but the seams will not react the same as a butt welded joint.
you can't glue that hood together and expect any long term success. do you plan on opening the hood or ever driving the truck? that hood is 2 giant flexible parts pop riveted together. do it once. do it right. weld it.
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