Where my alloy hood meets my grille shell I have way too much metal sticking out in the curve Is it possible to shrink this or will I have to slice it and weld here is a pic of the offending gap
I hope one of the true metal masters will comment on this. I'm really curious to see how they would handle this type of situation. Its a little tough to tell in the picture, but I ***ume that the center peak lines up with the shell? If so, left to my own devices, I would be inclined to make a pie cut about 3/4" above the body line reveal, dropping the left side of the hood into the correct position. Actually, the best way that I can think of is to make one straight cut 3/4" above the reveal molding cutting from the front almost all the way to the rear. Then drop the hood down into its final position and mark the second cut. That way it will be really accurate. Keeping the welding close to the reveal molding will reduce the warpage as opposed to cutting through the top of the panel
it depends on what tools you have available i guess. by alloy, i ***ume you mean aluminum? what gauge is it? does the back fit fine? trey
Yes alloy will shrink. It can also get way out of hand on a panel that's supposed to be flat and currently only has a simple curve in it, not a compound curve, which is what you are contemplating doing if you shrink it. Don't try to shrink yet.... You'll hate the awkward reflections in the shiny paint after. Instead, install a thick enough hood lace all the way around on the radiator shell to lift that center part of the hood up where it is sagging way too far down to fit. That looks like a lot of the problem to me. Then start by bending a little more "peak" into the center-front of the hood so it has the same pitch as the shell. It's too flat now. If that doesn't do it, round up an "Official Morgan Factory Hood Form" which is a bark-less tapering 3"-6" diameter tree trunk, knot bumpsand all, or a piece of drain pipe, on some sawhorses, to form the changing radius a bit tighter at the front you roll the curve gently across the log, (like curling a wide ribbon?). Keep the hood flat on the form or you may stretch the edge, which is the opposite of what you want.
Simon, Dr. J has some good suggestions. I'd post the same question on www.metalmeet.com. You should get some good help there, too. I'm having similar problems, and I'm getting frustrated with aluminum, so I'm not much help right now! --Matt
You can use a shrinking disc with a little soap to shrink aluminum, but as has already been said, you need to make it fit by bending or otherwise manipulating the panel first. It looks like it is lumpy in the picture? If so, you need to smooth the panel before anything else. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
It looks like the center of the front of the Hood is too low to match the height of the grille. Do you have the welting in place on the Grille Shell? If you dont, it will throw everything off... After you have done that, match the shape to the Grille Shell, and depending on how much material that "uses up", you might only have to drop the sides a bit, with no shrinking at al... That would be a lot easyer, with less chance of painting yourself in a corner.
There are several shrinking techniques. Each will shape the aluminum a little differently. For instance, if you use a shrinker with jaws on the edge, it will shrink the EDGE. That then causes the material that's beyond the edge to crown. That's not going to be the solution here by any means. I have NO idea what the results would be in using a shrinking disc on the top panels in order to **** the sides in more, but I have a feeling that will cause problems. If you tried it at all, it will have to be done completely evenly across the top panels. Bear in mind that if you shrink the top to pull that radius inward, the flatter side panels will ALSO move inward. That could be a problem in fitting, too. Every metal crafter (and I am NOT one, but I have been around it long enough to be able to think up possible solutions) has to create a process for everything. The basic things that need to be accomplished, of course, is to shrink in the proper spots, stretch in the proper spots, bend in the proper spots, and to NOT do any of these in the proper spots. That's the gist of it. That being said, I'll take a stab at thinking through a possible process without being able to eyeball the hood in person. Just thinking out loud here. I'm thinking that, because the radius of the hood does not seem to match the radius of the grille, that you need to make a very long length of pipe with the same radius as the grille. MAKE SURE that it tapers back to the proper radius of the cowl where the hood meets that. If these two radiuses are the same, then you could simply use a pice of pipe as is. If they are different, then you are going to have to modify that radius. You won't get a good, gradual taper or smooth enough surface if you try to sand that pipe down. So, I'd suggest slitting the bottom of the pipe in a very straight slit all the way from front to back. Then insert wedges in the bottom at specific intervals (like every three inches), gradually opening that pipe up-- which is gradually flattening the pipe out (much like if you took that pipe, slit it, then completely flattened it on the floor-- see how the radius goes from tight to completely flat??). Once you have this radiused "form" in its proper place, and VERY stable to where it can't move, then take a piece of STRAIGHT iron bar stock (flat stock), like angle iron with a fairly long side to it, and squeeze the crown of the hood down to that "form", starting at the top of the hood (CAREFUL, don't dent your hood top). Then, with pressure remaining on the flat stock, slide it down on the radius of the hood in a manner that follows the radius of the hood. In effect, ironing out the hood. Your hood sides will grow downward, so you may have to trim as you go. You may have to use the shrinking disc afterward, to clear up any waves which may be interpreted as "high spots". I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS WILL WORK WELL OR NOT. In theory, it might! Before you do anything, think through different possibilities-- both what might work, and what might go wrong. And metal men ALWAYS learn as they go, carefully monitoring their progress. Now that I wrote this, I realize that the method I described above doesn't give any solution for clamping the hood firmly. I don't know what the best solution would be, as you are not likely to find clamps large enough. Perhaps you'd have to do something as elaborate as removing the hood entirely, turning it upside down, clamping the sides of the top of the hood (just before it meets that radius) between two pieces of thick metal. Again, since you are going to have trouble finding clamps deep enough, you may have to push down on the middle of the piece of metal on the top (underside of the hood now) with something. Maybe by turning carriage bolts that are threaded into something very stable above the hood, like a steel frame. Perhaps this will all be more trouble than building a new hood from scratch. Sometimes metal men get 2/3 done with a project and realize they painted themselves into a corner and they have to s**** and start over again with a different technique or a different set of steps. In fact, if the radius matches the cowl really well, then perhaps slitting the radius and giving it a long, gradual pie cut, may be a good way to go. Bear in mind this if you do: the welding will cause a fair amount of warpage, the weld is rouch, and the very back of the pie cut likely will be raised a tad like a little bump. All of these will have to be metal-finished out. So this may not save time, either. Think everything through, and good luck.
Put you left palm on the sharp radius, and GENTLY pull out the edge of the hood (where the hood sides mount). Like meatalshapes said, you might have to raise up the hood by the peak (shim).
I would avoid heating or using shrinking discs. Wou should be able to reform the hood with a block of wood or pipe like is suggested. I personally would see how it sits with the seal in and if needed put a little more bend it the center, This should give a coulpe of mm each side.
As for latches on the hood I built for a wedding gift I used some cupboard latchs that lock in by gently pushing down on the hood and to release you pull back a sliding pin. Thes were on the firewall end and the other end just had a couple of hooks late slid under the radiator shroud lip
Looks like you did very much the same thing I did. What happened with my 32 was that the hood was fitted quite well and after the car was painted I realized I had to raise the hinged (right) side up so the paint didn't get torn up on the hood top against the 1/2 x 1" rectangular tubing where the hinges were mounted. What you need to do - imho - is fit the hood very tightly to the car - pull it down around the grille shell and cowl with the 1/2 x 1" rect tubing removed. That will tell you how high the 1/2 x 1" rectangular tubing should be mounted. I ended up making a 'dropped' 1/2 x 1" rect tubing pair of hood mount/radiator braces. These pieces came down a little lower and ****ed the hood down tight against the grille shell. The pic shows how high the hood was prior to the 'lowered' hood mount rect pieces. One other thing that can enter into it is how high the grille shell is. Overly tall means the gap between grille shell and hood top piece is not equal all the way around. Same deal if too low, although you should get the hood low enough so the line from cowl to grill shell is a straight - but not level - shot and does not have a higher grille shell that causes the 'flow' of the hood line to go up instead of being part of one line from cowl to grille shell. Dr J's suggestion about taller hood lacing over the center part of the hood top may do it for you. To that end, a piece of rubber hose - fuel lines etc. - may do it as far as the initial setup goes and you can install the proper lacing later.
Here's what I meant about the hood gap between hood and grille shell or hood and cowl is not equal all the way around. The 31 has a Deuce grille shell and a custom length hood by Rootlieb. In this pic the grille shell is about 1" too high.
In this pic, the grille shell was lowered 1" which gave the correct hood 'flow' line from cowl to grill shell. Originally it had the same varying gap problem seen in the above post about the hood top/cowl gap. You can see the gap between hood top and grille shell is fairly even all the way round. it does need a touch more tweaking, but it's almost there.
Would it be sacrelige to suggest modifying the shell to fit the hood? I mean, if it's an alloy hood, is smooth, properly shaped and fits the cowl? Begin beating me now
As long as I'm on a roll . . . this pic shows how the 31's hood is ****ed down fairly tight to the grille shell. Nothing magic or talented done here, just attention to detail and having learned some of the pitfalls from the 32, things were a little easier here.
I'd say that just using thicker windlace will leave the hood sticking up higher than the grille shell and will look awful.
After a good long look I have established that the grill shell is twisted so over easter I will redrill all the mounting holes to square it up and then streach the hood down into the position and redo all the hood hardware one step forward 2 steps back Thats the problem when every part is hand made
Correct . . . but . . . if the hood is fitted sans lacing or with small diameter lacing the hood will drop into/onto the grille shell with the center portion of the hood sinking in too far. A thicker diameter lacing will hold the hood up where it's supposed to be in the center - especially true at the cowl end of the hood - and fit well where the hood wraps around the grille shell. If you use the original style Ford lacing it will take a little bit to seat-in and go flat in the areas where it should be a touch flat. It's a juggling act for sure with many different components bringing their own problems to the mix. Simons hood may need shrinking or bending or whatever, but before doing that I think pulling the hood down as mentioned may do it for him. (I may not have made it clear with the pic of the black 32. That was the before picture when the hood sat up too high.)
The left side is fine I only have this gap on the right looking at the front of the car I know it doesn't look it but the hood it level with the peak in the middle all thoose lumpy marks on the hood are just an optical illusion it is just scotchbrite marks going in diff directions it is perfectly smooth I beleive I have the grille shell off centre so will have to fill all my mounting holes and start again I have the hood wedged at all points to level it with the body so it isn't a lacing problem
it is better to see in person, but the picture does give some help? i first would exhuast all adjustments to aligning the shell/hood/cowl if you still need to shrink the metal, what tool you have will dictate what you can do. a tuck shrink can be done with a hammer and dolly, hard to explain in a paragraph but here goes. a tuck/ruffle/pucker is a V shaped raised spot along and edge of the metal, when hammered flat the 2 vertical sides stack up on itself(avoid folding) making the metal thicker than before, this is also called stack shrinking. Now the best way for anyone to try this is by forming a dish from a flat pc of metal, by stretching the middle the tucks/ruffles/puckers form along the edge. i would recomend very highly practicing on other things than your hood. Determining how many/large of tucks you will need will come with experience! try www.metalshapers.org John Glover put together a nice album/demo on tuck shrinking, John Kelly has a neat album on the shrinking disk. for a real basic making a dish check out my boy's science fair project in this album http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbum.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980165209144 Good luck with your project! tt
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