SC Coupe Restoration

[tperazzo]

Warning: the following pictures are super detailed and non-glamorous.

The hinge pockets welds were cracked even before I had to "adjust" them. Now that everything lines up, the cracks needed to be welded.
Before:

After:

Same thing, but taken from under the dash

The other side was cracked in a different area. This is the vertical trunk wall where it meets the cowl.
before:

after:


That's it. Boring, but necessary.

[tperazzo]

There's the video "Made by Hand" and then there is your topic here "Remade by Hand".

Phil

Ha, reminds me of my registry thread, Made by hand again. Anyhow thanks again for the encouragement from you all.

Eastwoods door skin pliers are backordered, but that's the one I'm waiting for. It doesn't look as well made as the one Bruce shared, but its better than nothing. If it doesn't come soon, I've been eyeing some tile nibble pliers in my tool box that could be modified to work.

Tonight, I stripped the other hood that I intend to use the skin for my newly fixed frame.


There are some small distortions near the hinge bracket, but this thing is in great shape so far. Keeping my fingers crossed that its not rusty on the inside, like the other hood.


Goodnight everyone!

[John Pierce]

Tom,
I had to smile when I saw your handmade hinge bolts. That's something I'd do as I can only imagine how tedious it is to take off and put on the hood for all the fittings. It frame turned out nicely. Where did you end up purchasing the skin removal tool? I saw one on Eastwood, but it wasn't as nice as Bruce's.


John

[JTR70]

Tom, I really like your internal reinforcement section; Clean and undectable once the hood is assembled! Good idea on the speed bolts for mock-up too. Keep up the great work! Justin

[foamcar]

Really nice work Tom. There's the video "Made by Hand" and then there is your topic here "Remade by Hand".

Phil

[tperazzo]

Thanks guys! JOP if you need any help on your hood, please let me know. I'm happy that you want to tackle it.

I've done about all I can do on this hood frame. Finally everything lines up and I still have plenty of adjustment in the factory sized slots. After removing and fit checking the hood a million times I made these bolts to save time. These attach the hood frame to the hinges without tools!

Here's some pictures of the hood frame fit.





After the fit and the frame curvature was correct, extra supports were made to strengthen my frame splices. This L shaped part is welded directly on top of the hinge brackets so some of the load can be transferred to the center rail lump.


.


My hope is that the skin goes back on and won't need tons of adjustment, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking.

In the interest of time, I decided not use the skin that came off this frame. Too rusty.....

Pictured is the inside edge where the nose meets the frame. Bondo stalagmites make me sad. That means rust holes were present and someone just covered them up.

So, I'll borrow the skin from the nice BT6 hood that I have. I'm still waiting for the door skin pliers to arrive and I need the hood seal before I do much more.

Thanks for watching!

[JTR70]

A lot of time spent stitching up that run! Looking good!

[JOP]

Really nice to see your attempting to fix your dented and rusty hood.
I need to take care of some dents in mine and you give me some inspiration to get it started

[tperazzo]

Here I am adding new metal to the lip.

..

Finish welded

On the flip side

Final trimming on the outer edge to be finished when re-fitting the skin.

Next up is more tweaking to get the hood frame to fit perfect on the car. Hood gaskets have been ordered to accurately position the hood the best I can.

Thanks for watching!

[tperazzo]

Thanks Justin, but all the ugliness hasn't been beat out yet!

DG, made a comment about later cars lacking perfect workmanship and this may be a good example.



No one knows for sure if this happened when either the hood was kinked or when it flew up and damaged the cowl. My guess is that it was made that way. Perhaps the spot welder didn't compress the parts tight enough together resulting in no weld. No metal was ripped out from the mating sheet metal, so that tells me that it wasn't a good weld to begin with.

Either way I had to fix it...I mean over-restore it, ha ha.

Drilled and plug welded from other side.


Next up is the lip of the hood frame which as luck would have it is holey.


An all new edge has been installed and I'll post those as soon as I can.

Thanks,
Tom

[JTR70]

This once nasty old substructer is really beginning to take shape! Great work Tom!

[foamcar]

Very nice work, again, Tom. Glad you were able to use the templates. Good idea cutting them back a little to see the profile better. I had to put a crease in the cardboard along the bend in order to see where to cut them out.
Phil

[Trevor]

Yep I'm reading Tom

[merbesfield]

Tom, maybe you said this, but have you thought about adding strength using a hidden internal structure to the hinge area while you have it apart? Great job you are doing.

[tperazzo]

Other side of the hood frame is done. Not much new to share, except this side had a bit more damage from the old brazed in bars.




Here's a crack near the hinge bracket, a high stress area.

I welded that sucker up, but it still makes me nervous. If your reading this Trevor, this is why I plan to reinforce this area after everything fits the way I want it. This hood has had a hard life for sure!


Huge mounting holes are also a thing of the past.


I welded the edge to seal the seams before welding the patch in.



Other holes were sloooowly closed with tiny weld beads.

Holes re-shaped. Good thing I had some extra hoods to measure.

The hinges need to be adjusted a little bit again, now that there is much less range of adjustment. All the damage is slowly reversing back to the way it was when new.

Thanks for following my progress!
Tom