Hood "PEAK" tech...startin tech-week early

ok. i was going through my pics from "peaking" the hood for BIG OLDS and i think i have enough for a seudo tech post. i seem to have lost, or mearly forgotten to take, pics of the earliest stages of the job, but i think most people with at least some fabrication experience will be able to follow along just fine.

let me say first that this is by far the HARDEST modification i have ever attempted, and i've been told by a couple highly respected old timers i've befriended, that it is the hardest body mod to pull of "CORRECTLY". the problem is WARPAGE! the hood is made up of two halves with a flange down the middle (on the underside) where the two halves are spot welded together. well no matter how you do it the hood is gonna want to sink in through the middle. it is after all a big ole piece of metal with no real reinforcement or anything else to keep it from doing the dreaded WAVE! the key is lots of patience, hammer and dolly work and a little shrinking throw in for good measure. oh, also a block of hardwood and a BIG HAMMER!! we'll get to that towards the end. now lets get this party started with a pic of the finished hood, so you know where we're going with this thing....

 

notice that the "peak" ends just as it crests over the front of the hood. this was done in order that the peak in the hood matches the factory peaks in the 47 Oldsmobile fenders.

let me explain how this whole process got started. the first thing i did after removing the paint (or primer in this case) from the center section of the hood, was to make the actual peaked filler piece for the center of the hood. i did this very carefully using the 4' sheetmetal break at the local community college. you have to be a litte clever though and use some "FINNESSE" cause you don't want sharp corners for your peak.

after the filler peice was made and trimmed up on the edges it was laid on top of the hood and the edges where scribed into the hood. then you cut out the center of the hood on those scribed lines. make it tight, it's easier to grind the edges a little more to make the filler fit than to weld up a big gap, and you don't want to introduce any more heat than you have to here.

in this next pic i hope you can get an idea of how i created the tapered ends of the peaked peice. a couple carefully placed slices with the cut off wheel, a little hammer and dolly work, weld, grind and VIOLA!! i did the same for the front end of the peak but had to also make several slices further back in order to get the peak to make the curve down the front of the hood.

 

where that big ugly hole is at the point of the peak got cut out, and a new peice made to go from the peak to the back edge of the hood. i used a MIG welder at the ends and to tack everything in place but i did the majority of the welding with an oxy acetelyne setup. it's much nicer than MIG and like TIG you can "WORK" your welds with a hammer and dolly. and here it is all metal finished...

 

and the front of the peak i mentioned earlier...

 

now, the back edge of the hood from the factory is just the raw edge of the sheetmetal. it's not a folded over edge or nothin, and like i mentioned there is now real bracing under the hood, at least not that would help in holding the shape of the hood. so i cut a couple half inch wide pieces of 18ga sheetmetal and "edge welded" them, with the torch, along the underside of the rear of the hood (at the center where it would sit on the cowl). this helped dramaticaly and with the "L" shaped brackets i made that attached this back edge to the factory cross brace (between the hinges) i was able to get the rear back into shape.

in hind sight i would have done these bracket pieces first and prolly avoided a WHOLE LOT of warpage that i had to latter shrink out, but hey, live and learn.

and here it is...

 

at the very front of the hood, below where the peak ends, was still the factory seam. i had planned to put a slight bend in a piece of sheetmetal and weld it in as i did the rest, after cutting that section out. well, time constraints (and the fact this was a FREEBIE job) prevented me from going that route and it was deamed "good enough" to just MIG weld in the seam and grind it down. our own Kritz did most of that while i just came through later and cleaned it up a little....

 

you might be wondering when that block of oak and the big hammer come into play. well let me tell you.

once i got the whole thing welded up and most of the warpage out it sagged down the middle of the peak like an old horses back. the cure for that was to get a peice of 1x6 hardwood (oak in this case) about 10 inches. with a DA sander and some 80 grit i carved the shape of the peak in one edge of the wood so that it would fit, from the underside, inside the the peak. with the hood upside down two of us held the hood ABOVE the body stand while one of us usd the hammer and block of wood to literaly beat the hood into submission. after a bit of WACKIN and an eyeball down the peak every couple hits, it eventualy came back to where it needed to be and all was right with the world!! a little (and i mean very little) filler and this baby should be golden! or should i say COPPER since that is Denise's color of choice for the big guy.

the following are a couple "finished" pics of the hood. i hope i explained the process well enough so you too can screw up a perfectly good hood. seriously, this is a very difficult modification and if it were'nt for the help of my good friend Paul Beck i might have never got all the warpage out...

 

HMM, should have thrown this one in there sooner. it shows you how the center was cut out and the new filler PEAK fit in...

 

Damn nice work. Here's a thought. What if you cut the new peaked piece in 3 or 4 equal sections, then spliced them into the hood one at a time? Would working the seams between the sections be more trouble than it's worth? Seems like if you only replaced a section at a time it would help control warpage. Another idea on a peak, if you have a spare '53 or '54 chevy fender, you can cut the body line out of the fender and put it in the hood...or use your imagination. How about the center of a '60 buick hook spliced into a '50s ride? The possibilities are endless. Once again, thanks for the post.....

Brian

 

from the back...

 

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Damn nice work. Here's a thought. What if you cut the new peaked piece in 3 or 4 equal sections, then spliced them into the hood one at a time? Would working the seams between the sections be more trouble than it's worth? Seems like if you only replaced a section at a time it would help control warpage. Another idea on a peak, if you have a spare '53 or '54 chevy fender, you can cut the body line out of the fender and put it in the hood...or use your imagination. How about the center of a '60 buick hook spliced into a '50s ride? The possibilities are endless. Once again, thanks for the post.....

Brian

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not sure if doin it sections would help or not. try it and let me know ...

you could definatley cut the peak out of any of the "newer" hoods, that would have had them, and use em to fill in the peak on your 40s or 50s two piece hood.

 

Once again Mike NICE WORK!

 

Back to the top, is it tech week yet???

Brian

 

I know that's the right way to do it, but is there any real problem with tacking a 3/8" rod down the seam and body filling on either side? I'm worried about warping and figure that would keep it down.

 

looks great, 1 question, could you just weld the piece you made to the top of the hood instead of cutting the hood? after seeing your post i realize it's a much bigger job than i thought. again, great job!

 

bttt

 

to reply to your questions about welding rod vs. kustombuiler's method......You will warp it MORE laying rod. If you use rod think about how much thicker that rod is than sheetmetal. You are going to HAVE to use more heat to bond the rod and the hood metal. I am not saying laying rod won't work. In fact We are almost done with mine and it is turing out nice. However, it is more time consuming an d will use more filler than Kustombuilder's method. I do think it would take a little bit more experienced metal fabricator to do it his way though. We thought about doing it the way Kustombuilder did it after seeing the article in Rod n Custom. But we pussed out. My hood will look good when it is done. But I do believe Kustombuilder's method is better.

IMO

FONZI

 

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looks great, 1 question, could you just weld the piece you made to the top of the hood instead of cutting the hood? after seeing your post i realize it's a much bigger job than i thought. again, great job!

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i don't see any advantage to doing that, in fact it woud make it near impossible to hammer and dolly the weld seam. i would'nt recomend that.

 

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I know that's the right way to do it, but is there any real problem with tacking a 3/8" rod down the seam and body filling on either side? I'm worried about warping and figure that would keep it down.

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the only thing i can think of is that after time moister will get to your body filler from underneath through the underside of the seam in teh hood. i still think if done well it would last many many years though. i'm considering trying that method on my 47 Chevy just so i have the experience of doing it both way. the Chevy might be easier just because the hood is about 10 feet shorter than Big Old's hood!

 

OH, and to add to that. why not just use steel brake line tubing instead of solid rod. it would take less heat to weld. just something i JUST thought of.

 

awesome post.....ruler

 

Brake line is a "harder" metal. I realize it's easier to bend, but it is harder, in that it will crack when welded to your body sheetmetal. We did that to the roof of a Model A about 20 years ago and I remember the rod cracking off the tack welds we made while doing the job. After a bunch of tacks the rod seemed to stick though. It still looks good, but I remember it had us worried when we did it. Maybe some other type of hollow rod would work better than brake line.


alchemy

 

Good work brother. How's the A?

 

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you could definatley cut the peak out of any of the "newer" hoods, that would have had them, and use em to fill in the peak on your 40s or 50s two piece hood.

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That '53 Chevy Pat Ganahl built, in the pages of R&C, for his nephew a few years back used the peak off a '55 Chevy fender for the hood. I think they tig welded it too

 

I was already impressed that you created that nicely rounded and tapered piece on a brake. Doubly impressed that you cut the center of the hood out and*****ed it in. Triply impressed that you kept the waves at bay.

It will look most sano from under the hood when they see it was not just something that was tacked on to the outer surface.

Any other custom tricks in store for Big Olds?

 

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Good work brother. How's the A?

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HUH, what A???---- OH! that thing!! I WISH!!! been up to my**** in other people's cars. i just can't seem to say "no" when someone brings me a new project to work on, i'm workin on it though. nnn. nnnnnn. nnnnnno. no. NOOO!!!... i think i got it now!!

 

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I was already impressed that you created that nicely rounded and tapered piece on a brake. Doubly impressed that you cut the center of the hood out and*****ed it in. Triply impressed that you kept the waves at bay.



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yeah, it was kinda tricky makin that piece. i did'nt exactly use the brake they way the manufacturer intended it to be used, but hey, it worked.


as for keepin the wave at bay. well lets just say there was one BIG tidal wave in there at one point in time. ALOT of heat shrinking with a torch, hammer and dolly later and it's all good!

 

BTTT for Smokin Joe (who may have smoked one too many ), check the post date holmes.

 

Looks like I'm gonna make enemies this week.
Unlax dude. You're in the running. I was interupted here when I checked the date and saw the 18th from under your picture instead of the 23rd from the top of the post I guess. That's close enough.

Whoever I pick, I gotta say, the competition is intense this time around. There are a bunch out there that I'd pick as tech week winners. And it's only Thursday! I may have to let the Dash Duck draw the final winner outa the hat just so I don't get my**** shot off by the almost picked crowd.

 

i was just givin ya***** bro. i did'nt even realize it was a contest till yesterday. i'm just glad to see some more USEFULL information on the board rather than something completely useless and not even vaguely car related.