Thanks for all the comments. Hopefully this will help someone out along the way.
Originally Posted by klhansen
Adding my WOW! as well. Very nice work! It's a shame that you had to resort to that much work to make a hood fit. The Aftermarket industry needs to up it's game. It's not like they don't have the proper dimensions for these parts.:rolleyes:
That 3M NVH stuff is good. I used it on my hood as well. Was wondering if heating the rear hood support would have worked to tighten up that curvature. I've see where a company straightened bent wide flange beams by standing them with the arch upward and heating the flanges in a V pattern. That shrinks the metal and in the case of the beams gravity helped straighten them. The cost of the OA gas was worth salvaging the beams.
I considered heating the support but I was afraid the heat might warp the skin if it happened to get too hot. But it might not be a bad way to go if you are careful and can heat the support while the hood is mounted to bend it in place and let it cool. That was one of the hardest things to account for on all these changes. Figuring out what needed to be tweaked and keeping that curvature or rigging in place when the hood was removed to be worked on. Also, if the finished engine wasn't in the way then it might have been easier to do while the hood was on the truck. Like Mike Tyson says, "hindsight is 50/50".
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
