Plan A was to TIG new tabs on the old molding, but since TIG needs very clean metal I wasn't sure how much of the 22 Ga metal would be left after the grinding.
Went on to plan B. Bought one of the replacement moldings for the smaller trucks.
It is a totally different construction. Instead of a 22 Ga shell forming the molding and a base strip with the tabs captured in the bottom (standard trim construction), the replacement is made of a solid strip of 16 Ga rolled in the profile if the original. The edge of the 16 Ga = the thickness of the rolled edge of the original assembly. Then a strip with the tabs is welded to the underside.
It is 1-1/2 inches shorter, but also, not all the tabs line up with the slots in the bigger hood.
Starting from the windshield, the tabs match all the way to where the hood starts to curve down (1 set needed a snip to fit). After that not close.
Cut the molding off there, then recurved the remainder to match the front of the hood. Had to use a thin blade to elongate the 2 sets of slots on the front to match the tabs.
Then formed a piece of 16 Ga to match the profile and carefully cut it to match the gap. Rolled a piece of steel to match the profile of the hood where the splice was, clamped everything up and it TIGed up great.
http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/jsdesign2/library/
