I started to try my hand at body work. I thought I would start with the hood, because it appeared to be the easiest. I took the hood down to bare metal and came across the PO repairs. I tried to see if I could do better bumping it out, but I can’t get at it underneath. So I guess I’m just going to bondo it up like it was, after an epoxy primer.

Would you close all the slide hammer holes up with the Mig welder, or just let the bondo fill in the holes?

Would you make a new piece and cut out the old? I’m probably not that good to try that.

 

I think most shops weld up holes these days.

 

I didn’t have time yet to fill in the holes, but I did replace another spot that had some rust holes. It looks like a mouse made a home in the hood from the under hood insulation. I guess the mouse urine made the holes? This part of the hood was packed with insulation.

 

Always weld the holes up. any moisture behind bondo will eventually rust and cause it to fall off.

Yes mice can cause a lot of rust damage, very common in square body hoods.

nice hoods are cheap, around here anyway. you might look.

 

Yes, fill those holes. If you can, use a TIG and take the opportunity to hammer the warm metal to be smoother and require less body filler. The trickiest part of working with hoods is that they are a sandwich of two pieces of metal spot welded together. It's those hard to reach places where rust through can most readily occur. It is now possible to peek into those areas with an inexpensive smart phone attachment, an endoscope/borescope. If you see rust, it can be neutralized in various ways. If you see rust through the problem is tougher but not insurmountable.

Here are a few possibly useful links.

 

Yes weld up the holes if you can.
HF may have a stud welder and dent puller combo you can use to pull the dunt out a little more if need be.

You dont need to take panels down to metal if the paint / primer are not flaking off.
if it is flaking or many coats then I would.
If it is left just sand to give tooth for primer paint to bite in.
Dave ----

 

After loosing some truck time to overtime, I’m hoping to wrap up the hood this weekend. I welded up the holes and added a little weld filler. I used Eastwood’s rust encapsulator with the hose to get between the hood and hood frame structure. Epoxy primer, urethane primmer, body filler, block sand. Repeat the whole thing because I got down to bare metal in some high spots, and really thinning it in others. Hammered down the high spots before epoxy priming and urathaning again. I have to block sand it again and probably touch up some low spots again.

My question is, should I add reducer to my last coat of primer to seal it? I don’t plan on putting on any top coats until spring (Maybe not at all if I don’t get better at this!). Does it need to be sealed for moisture if it doesn’t get painted until spring or summer? The plan was to tip it up against a wall in the garage, and cover with plastic. It won’t be installed and driving around all winter. The garage is un-insulated and not heated. I may run a small heater in the makeshift paint booth to extend the season a little, and maybe tackle the doors before it gets too cold. I’m mentioning that, because that would be the only condensation, if any. The garage stays warm enough to work in with just the sun and being out of the wind. Not warm enough for paint and prep though. It has thin south facing fiberglass doors that really warm it up on a sunny cold day.

 

From here, looks like you did a great job. I like good workmanship on projects.

Most guys forget that when these trucks were bult in the 70's they wernt perfect from the factory.
They were built as work trucks, and not show trucks.
Alex