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1/03/25: With my body working season winding down (heading south for the winter), I wanted to finish my project on a high note by tackling the hood, a project I was dreading. First I needed to remove the center moulding, as there was evidence it was hiding some rust. The first tab I tried to straighten, snapped off. I was previously considering replacing the center moulding with polished stainless, so a quick look on a few vendor sites convinced me that was the way to go. I continued to straighten the tabs and unbelievably they all cooperated, so the moulding was off. There was a small amount of rust but really no issue.

I started on the straightening the hood and it didn’t look too bad, but once I started sanding with a 10” block and 80 grit, the dents started to show themselves. A bit of hammering, dollying, a little bit of Bondo and most of the issues were resolved. However a couple of areas needed a little bit of weld repair. One front corner had a small crack and the hinge support had a few rusted thru spots. I was able to repair the areas with a few dot welds.

On day two, while waiting for the garage to get to priming temperature, I sandblasted some miscellaneous parts that also needed prime. I finished blocking the Bondo on the last repaired area, sanded the rest of the hood with 120 and applied some prime. The first coat went on spotty as the gun was spitting for some reason. I added a bit more of reducer and it didn’t help. I had a spare 1.7 nozzle set, changed it out which resolved the issue and finished priming. Prime went on smooth and revealed a few more wavy areas. I hope they will block out with the three coats of high build urethane prime I applied. We’ll see in the spring!