It has been several years since I have been on this site, and now have problems that maybe someone can help with. I am in the process of building a 42 Chevy business coupe for my daughter, and have a now large problem. I am peaking the hood, and have warped the hood badly. I thought I had taken enough time while welding the 5/16 rod to the top of the hood, but not enough time. I bought a shrinking tool for the sheetmetal, which is working great, but got some warpage in the rod itself. I got out the torch, and heated the rod up, got most of the warpage out. Went to the garage the next night, to do some more, and now it worse. Any ideas out there short of getting another nood?
Do you have any pictures? I think it would be easier to offer some tips having seen the actual issue.
Man, I hate to say this, but your best bet is to cut it all back out and roll a peak in some sheet metal and hammer weld it in with either gas or TIG. What's happened is the weld line that you have made putting the rod in has created small localized shrinks in the sheetmetal over the length of your work. Bet if you cut it out, the hood would almost return to normal by itself. Probably not what you wanted to hear...
yup and the shrinking disc/torch is doing you no favors, its already shrunk, and shrinking a shrunk is not helping at all. I'd roll the peak in a seperate peice and weld that in so you can stretch it back out as you go.
To avoid this potential problem when peaking the hood on my '54 GMC, I ran a strip of 20 ga. through my bead roller and created a "peaked" strip that I attached in the groove in the hood with body panel adhesive and tack welded the ends for good measure. Had to make a guide on the bead roller to keep the sheet metal strip straight while forming the bead. First one was good practice, the second worked great. Ray
I guess I will have to cut it out and start out again. Better stop and the welding supply and pick up some more cut-off wheels. Thanks for all the insight on thid
i don't know what method your using to do the welding on this, but as you put the new strip in, with either gas or TIG, go super slowly and do a 1 inch strip at a time and hammer the welds flat. Basically, when a weld cools, it wants to shink the material. By hammering it flat on dolly, your stretching it back out to neutral. I have done similar things with a MIG, but it tales quite a bit longer. With that, crank up as much heat as you can with out going through the metal with a relatively short wire speed and tack (not s***ch) everything every 6 inches or so. Carefully grind the tops off of each tack with a small cutting wheel, then hammer on dolly gently at each tack a bit. Go back and repeat the same deal skipping around from one end of the hood to the other as much as possible, being very sure not to concentrate too much heat in any one spot. Grind the tops, hammer, let cool, repeat... See what I mean by tedious?
may be i could help you? Post some pics and lets have a look. my weekly metal work blog www.themetalsurgeon.com
Thanks to all the replies. I cut out the rod, a lot of work, and I think I can straighten the hood now, and then attempt this all over again. I will keep you posted
Thanks for all the replies. I cut out the rod, and I think the hood will straighgten O.K. now. Then I can start the process all over again. I will keep everyone posted on progress
I have been in the garage working all afternoon. I couldn't find a beed roller small enough, so I used another 5/16 rod. After every weld I blew air from my compressor on the weld, and got no warpage. Sucess at last. Thanks for all of the ideas.
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