hood ding repair

[montes57]

anyone have an opinion on fixing the crack as well as the few dings? cant hammer and dolly cause of the bracing. other than those blems, its at least rust free. its currently tying up valuable garage real estate! was tempted to just throw a tack weld on crack.

 

[CalSgt]

Looks bowed where the crack is...

 

[DanMcG]

A stud welder would work on the dents, but I'm guessing you don't have one.
Welding the crack is worth a shot, but I'd think some type of gusset to reinforce the area would be better.

 

[Rickf]

Grinding and filling the dings would be the least expensive, mig the cracks with .023 solid core wire & Ar/Co2 gas, or replace the hood.

 

[MrMarty51]

I hope the hood repair on that comes better than some PO on the hood of My K3500, whutta mess. LOL
A surfer would be mighty happy with that bungled up mess. LOL

 

[MrMarty51]

Hood repairs dont come easy. That is theeee most visible spot on any vehicle, but, it is always worth a try.

 

[bucket]

Match the hood's profile to a fender before welding up that crack.

With those dings, there's more than a few ways to skin that cat. Many people would simply grind them and fill them, but there are other (better, imho) ways if you want to go to the time and expense.

 

[fast 99]

Buy a new hood. As previously noted, it is the most visible body part. I have tried to fix hoods not as bad as that. The result is usually very time consuming and poor. A large flat area is a difficult repair at best plus it may oil can and end up chasing dents over a large area.

 

[bucket]

I would 100% fix that hood. That's an original GM hood, without the "feature line" at the leading edge.

 

[montes57]

the front lip of my hood has rust holes thru the entire front. i found this one on MP yesterday for $40 so i went for it. i have been looking local weekly since June and this was the most reasonably-priced rust free find. i do have a stud welder, guess i will experiment on this as i have never used it before. ive welded patch panels and did a few dent repairs with hammer and dolly with somewhat decent results. i will start on center ding and go from there.

 

[fast 99]

I would 100% fix that hood. That's an original GM hood, without the "feature line" at the leading edge.

Guess the decision is based on availability. We still have quite a few SB hitting the pull and save yards, there are at least a 1/2 dozen in the yards right now. Here a decent used hood isn't all that hard to find.

 

[bucket]

Guess the decision is based on availability. We still have quite a few SB hitting the pull and save yards, there are at least a 1/2 dozen in the yards right now. Here a decent used hood isn't all that hard to find.

Yes, that is a large part of it. I would LOVE to have the hood pictured to use. But, even if it wasn't hard to find, it's still worth fixing. The repairs needed aren't a big deal. Extremely minimal amounts of filler would be needed and using quality materials, the repairs would be invisible for years (or decades) to come.

 

[fast 99]

Yes, that is a large part of it. I would LOVE to have the hood pictured to use. But, even if it wasn't hard to find, it's still worth fixing. The repairs needed aren't a big deal. Extremely minimal amounts of filler would be needed and using quality materials, the repairs would be invisible for years (or decades) to come.

The damage that would really concern me is the crack. Appears the reinforcement is also cracked. If you look at it the skin looks low in that area as well.

 

[bucket]

The damage that would really concern me is the crack. Appears the reinforcement is also cracked. If you look at it the skin looks low in that area as well.

Yep, it is low in the area. That's why I recommended to match the profile to a fender before welding it. It was probably buckled like normal and someone flattened it out and went too far.

 

[DanMcG]

Just a thought but if you have your original rusted hood, cut out a large patch panel section of the inner structure that's a few inches wider than the cracked section. Then cut out the new hood to match the patch, hammer and dolly the hood skin as best ya can then weld in the patch under it.
And make a cardboard template of the fender to match the hood too before welding it, like Bucket mentioned above