Hood damage help

[berettaguy]

Hi guys,

I had a slight, ahem, "incident" with my Waggy's hood when driving home from the parts store. I had driven there because the old battery hold down had dry rotted and fallen off. So, I bought a replacement and installed it in the parking lot. Well, come to find out the replacement hold down J hooks are pretty long and need to be cut down to size. In order to avoid poking a hole in my hood or leaving a dent, I just rested the hood in the shut position and decided to drive the mile and a half home. Well, lo & behold, on that little short journey I caught a gust of wind and my hood came flying up at me with alarming velocity! It made a loud bang, but stopped short of slamming into my windshield. When I got out to look at it, this is what I saw:

http://imgur.com/a/3haUI

It looks like the rear support brace on the hood that the hood side of the hinges attaches to has partially separated from the hood itself. This added slop adds flex and means that my hood won't latch closed anymore.

Is the hood toast or can it be repaired? If so, how would one go about getting this repaired? Is that back brace glued on or is it supposed to be welded? I can't tell on mine anymore. Does anyone in the Houston, TX, area happen to have a good hood that they would like to sell me??

Thanks in advance!

[8man]

It can be fixed, but it will take some skill.

I have a spare hood in Brenham that has a small rust hole on a front corner, but other than that it's in good shape. I was going to patch it until I got a hood with the second one I bought to have enough parts to do RT. With the two you could make one.

Let me know what else you find out. You can PM me or email me through this site if you want.

[berettaguy]

Thank you for the response. Do you know if the hood side of the hinge brace is welded on or held by some kind of body adhesive? I looked at it some more today and couldn't tell for sure. I didn't find any spot welds, but I didn't see any adhesive residue either.

[asphaltrockdweller]

Jinsajeep and I fixed one like that with very primitive tools in his back yard.
Put a couple bolts in it, and used several pieces of wood and a crow bar. Just worked slowly on it.

There is a spot of some kind of glue there, but honestly we did not add anymore to the hood, and it has held for quite a few years.
Right now I am building my Waggy, but I will add a spot of some type of glue before it gets painted.

[tgreese]

It's probably just caulking to keep that edge from rattling against the hood. AFAIK it's not structural.

I would go for replacement. Hoods don't rust like the fenders and floors, so they are fairly plentiful.