Slick 60's

Howdy,

So the first project for my truck is going to be getting a hood that will pass MA state inspection, i.e. no holes. I have the original which has rust through the front edge as shown, or i have the extra that came with the truck, which I just found out had over an inch of Bondo on one corner. I figure I could try to fix either but cutting up the other and welding in a patch, but i'm unsure which would come out better. Any thoughts?

Here's the original:


And here's the Bondo special, with filler all the way up to my grinding marks:

Mine was exactly the same as your original on one side. I had cut pieces out of a decent hood and had them welded in by a body shop (I can't weld good enough!) you would never know it's even had a repair.

The other option is you could take the corner of your original hood and maybe repair the dent in your spare with that?

Mine was repaired both outside and on the support inside.

I'd work on the yellow one... cut good metal from the white one though.

If you're confident the yellow one is solid everywhere but the front nose, that's the one to work on. Take the cross-brace out from the underside to give yourself a chance to find all the bad metal. To remove the brace, there are lots of spot welds to drill out, including a few behind the emblem on the front of the hood. You'll be pleased with the results.

I'd go for the white one myself. The yellow has a lot of issues beyond the front lip. If you can't work the dent out, cut a piece off the yellow hood for the corner. It would be a smaller patch in an area less prone to warping due to the higher crown. Just goes to show that there will be as many opinions as there are people to offer them ...

There would also be a lot of rust on the inside of the yellow one, like mine, lots of work involved repairing, I would try the white one. Tom

I would repair both. I never understand ruining one part to repair another, metal is metal. I get patch panels from the scrap of a friends body shop, do bending with 2 pieces of angle iron and c clamps. Truck hoods have several feet of metal, easy to skin off and don't know if it on a chevy, ford, or dodge. I would also fix that right fender, if nothing more than trade material.



Johnny

Thanks for all of the input. I think I'll start with taking apart the white hood and trying to straighten it out. If I can do it without patches all the better.

Johnny, I have two good fenders to replace the current ones.

I would repair both. I never understand ruining one part to repair another,

Its a fair point, provided they are both worth salvaging however. The hood I used for 'parts' was toast from a collision, so not salvagable. Using 'good' metal from a donor does make repairs easier though IMO, especially with curves and angles etc. I'm guessing that the front corner of the hood would be a bit tough to get looking right or without spending a lot of time on it. I also did the same with some bed 'patch' panels from a kind forum member.

That said, if they were both repaired to decent condition, you could sell one to cover the cost of repairing the other.