Finished up the leading edge of the hood latch plate. Much more solid now.

Repairing hood lip: 

Threw the grille on to see where things would line up:

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Hood work.....

The 40 Ford's hood is very original. Likely painted only once - and perhaps not completely - maybe just in the repaired spots such as where the latch plate was bolted to the hoods edge as shown below. 

I attached the latch plate to be sure everything lined up before I formed the other two ends and welded them in. It's pretty close, which at least shows us that the hood is somewhat even, side to side - not pushed over or buckled anywhere.

Having not been re-painted, one can see there's a lot of deep surface rust that needs sandblasting.

The hinges will need to be straightened, plus new rivets installed to tighten them up:

Here you can see a crack was welded at one of the stress points.

 On Saturdays, I have decided to spend an hour or two on my own stuff, including at getting some of the several engines I have sitting on stands.

Don't forget to check out my website at 

www.E-tekRestorations.com !

From wiring to metalwork

Test-fit the Headlight buckets and re-wired them for the single sealed beams and combined park/marker lights:

Left the pigtails off, ready to be connected after paint:

Hot rods require a completely different process than restorations. When I do a restoration, I pretty much know that everything will go back together where - and how - it should, With hot rods, you basically have to build it twice (or more) - once to get everything to fit and work, then you disassemble it all for paint and then rebuild it again to make it pretty!

Did some reading on these hoods and found that the latch plate causes a lot of issues with the hood - both in alignment and damage done due to the repeated flexing. My plan to strengthen both sides is to double-up both the hood edge and the lock plate mounting tab areas:

 This is where the hoods edge had cracked. I welded it up - inside and out - and will metal finish it after I welded a second layer of metal along the bottom lip.




Below is the latch panel. You can see it's bolted right at the very (thin) edges.

 Here you can see the mounting holes on the latch panel. Not a lot of strength there.

 I first flattened the areas that had been bent out of shape from where the bolts attach it to the hood.

 Then I fabricated a piece to be welded to the original, doubling up the weak area. Similar pieces will be make for each corner.

This electric shear might be the best metal tool I've ever owned - easy peasy!

Now that it's trimmed to shape I'll clean up the edges, weld it to the top-side of the original panel and it'll be completely hidden. Should add a lot off strength to problem area.