On my latest project, a 61 olds 88 it came with a giant hole cut in the hood for a big ol caddy dual air cleaner. The car also came with the chunk they cut out. I found another hood but I wanted to try and weld it back in. (I do have a fair amount of metal skills, I'm no metal finisher though) The hood is very large with very low crown so I knew warping was going to be a huge factor in this. I carefully lined it up and welded slowly and stretched the welds as I went which worked awesome, it controlled the warp. I was so focused on working the welded areas but didn't notice the very center peak of the hood has sank. If you eye down the center peak at hood level you see its down about 3/8 of an inch in an 18" length. This patch is basically like a 18" irregular circle (see photo) and don't know how it could have affected this 'crown' ....any ideas to help with my metal skills?
You haven't lost till you quit working on it. I bet you could push that peak back up in the center using a thin 1/4' metal strip running with the peak and tap it up with a hammer . You may have to stretch the weld more .
The peak didn't change, the flat area around it will not support the weight of itself, in the open area. If you add a 1/2 or 3/4" lip around the edge of the entire hole, it would help immensely, without adding any heavy reinforcement.
The Jalopy Journal
