About The Author
wardf
Active Member of the Maverick Comet Club Message Board.
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Step 1
Not saying this is the only way by any means, just the way that I repaired Daves grabber hood. His hood was rusted pretty bad along the inner and outer edge as you can see in the pics. Dave brought me a good flat hood, (which I did everything I could to find a flat hood not as nice that I could use), to use as a donor. Anyways, I cut the original hood across the crown on the outside and angled the cut from the crown to the ends of the ridge across the top of the ridge where the hood latch mounts on the inside. You can see the 2 peices, the one I cut off and the one I cut from the donor, I used tape to mark where the cut would be. I also took measurements diagnally from corner to corner and took an 18" peice of 2X4 and traced the shape of the front hoodlip/crown/and back about 10" to use as a guide to weld the new peice back in place. I then ground the new peice to fit the hood and butt welded the new peice on, inside and out. I welded this in 1/4" spotwelds inches apart to keep from heat distorting the metal and creating more work. After that I ground it down and welded any spots that were filled. with the hood stripped and ready for body work you couldn't tell on the outside that there was even a repair. I finished the hood inside and out so the under the hood you can't tell that it was fixed either. Well I guess its as easy as that.
In the last picture you can see where I had my line taped off to follow.
Cutting
In the last picture here you can see where I had it clamped in place.
Welding
In these pics it shows where the donor fit on the inside. in the next 2 and I know they're not very good pics but you can see the spot welds in one pic and then what it looked like after grinding. And finally what it looked like after stripping the rest of the hood and DAing it down.
Finished Product
Commit posted by Dan Hines 6/24/2002
Awesome job and another Grabber hood saved ....
Here is the hood Frank is talking about ....
