What Richard says Eric. And then you can weld up the crack.
To anneal the metal you can heat it to a cherry red and hold it there for a few minutes then let it cool down slowly in still air, would also help if you could cover it with a high temp blanket so it cooled down slowly.
Of course if your dealing with a sheet metal hood panel chances are heating it is going to distort or warp it. You may just be dealing with fatigue cracks which doesn't mean the metal is hard. The metal would have to have been hammerd a lot to get it to work harden, in which case again, you could anneal it.
Denny Graham
Sanwi


Denny G
Sandwich, IL