gmoran1469

Took the majority of the weld down with 120 grit 4" flapper wheel on my electric dewalt side grinder then finished it with a 40 grit 2" sanding wheel on my pneumatic angle-die grinder till I couldnt feel the weld bump anymore. Did the back first, then the front. Next is body filler and blocking.







These hoods are super nice, I never realized until I started working on them. Incredibly light. I didn't put a mic on it but it's gotta be made of at least 22GA if not thinner.

Ford-a-tude

That's why I don't have an aftermarket hood. Fiberglass hoods weigh more than the aluminum stocker. I want to weld up the wiper nozzle holes and paint my stripes on. I don't have a welder yet and was considering brazing them up with some alumiweld rods. Not sure if welding aluminum is something for a beginner. I also need to do the spoiler holes on the trunk lid.

gmoran1469

DO NOT. I repeat. DO NOT try to braze this hood. The heat would almost certainly distort it permanently. My welding job was a 2 person project, one person TIG welding at the lowest heat possible and melting the rod into the hood rather than pooling the hood and I was on the bottom with a wet cloth constantly cooling it. It was scary to see it bowed up like a pimple and then hit it with the cloth and watch it go back down. Brazing is gonna require you torching the hood and that much heat would probably warp it for good. I wouldn't even touch this thing with a MIG welder. TIG or nothing. You have to be able to control where the heat goes.

Ford-a-tude

Wow, thanks for that advice! Maybe I will just leave the wiper nozzles alone and just paint the stripes. How about the trunk lid? I believe that is steel. I know brazing is not the preferred method, but I like to do things myself. Would the same thing apply if I brazed the holes there or would the steel warp just as badly as the aluminum?

gmoran1469

Not sure about the trunk. The thinner the material, the more it's going to warp though.

gmoran1469

Hood goes to the paint shop next week, should get it back around the weekend after that. Got some favors I can call in so no cost to me (woot!)

Chromeshadow

I've tried brazing car sheet metal, it makes a real mess. Even a cheap MIG welder is much better. You can put a block of copper flush against the opposite side that you are welding from, MIG will not stick to the copper and you will not blow through the sheet metal. You can flatten a piece of copper water pipe enough for a small project.

gmoran1469

Yeah, this is good advice. That's what I usually do, we have an actual copper block, but I couldn't get it into some of the places on the hood where the underside only has a small hole where you can get the copper in. We got a nice MIG gun in recently specifically for aluminum though and I got to test it on the hood. I was grinding the back to finish it and one of the welds popped out so I used the MIG instead of TIG. I was able to tack BB sized tacks and fill it with less heat than the TIG surprisingly.

gmoran1469

Hood back from paint. Even the underside





There are two imperfections in the paint and a couple fish eyes but a free paint job is a free paint job so I won't complain.