Well it warmed up today so I thought I would avoid cabin fever and go out and do something destructive/creative.... Now I did this because my Grabber hood needs a frame and I wanted to see how hard it was..and it's not hard to do at all. You will need a claw hammer,flat screwdriver, cold chisle, some small 2x4 blocks of wood and a putty knife. First of all lay your hood bottoms up on a set of saw horses or other substantial stands at a comfortable height.... Remove the Latch.... Next locate all the spot welds, mine only had four on each side,front and back,16 total not like the cowl with 100+...drill them out, be careful not to go too deep.... Next grab a claw hammer, a cold chisle and your most hated made in china flat screwdriver, sharpen ALL of them, make them flat (I used my mini grinder, but you can use whatever you have) yes even the end of the claws on the hammer.... Start at the back corner, going up the side, insert the cold chisle and start lifting the lip by tapping it with the hammer head, once it is lifted a bit, use the claws of the hammer, stick them under the lip and start prying it up, you can do this all the way up the sides easily, once the lip is lifted somewhat, use the block of wood by putting is against the lip and banging it with the hammer to push it back enough to clear the frame, when you get close to the front where it turns down (up in this case) carefully work it, keep prying it will come loose.... Now on the front you will find the spot welds are located right at the drain holes (yeah right) and using the same method on the front prying with the hammer, you may find as I did it is in some spots better to use the wood under the hammer when prying, and of course it gets a little tough around the bends in the hood but use the flat screwdriver on those and it's not too bad.... Once you have went around the hood lip completly, there is more that needs breaking loose, there is an adhesive type putty under the frame the needs to be broken loose, you can see some of it, carefully use the putty knife to slip under the frame and tap it in at the points where the adhesive is, it will break loose rather easy, you may find you missed some spots when doing the next step.... Starting at the back corner start lifting the frame away from the skin, do both sides and the back first, then lift the frame away from the back and the front will pop out easily! Now you can do whatever you need to do to it, media blasting, replace the skin with another as I will be doing, fix dents or rust on either the skin or frame! Oh and don't assume your hood has no rust, you can't see alot of it and mine was getting pretty bad under the frame, but it looked mostly rust free! (until it fell down and got water in it, surface rust) I put the skin back on the car to cover the engine that is still in it. Almost forgot...this only took me an hour and a half to do!!!
So this is what you chose to do on your Birthday? I usually work on my car on my bday too. And then go drive it and have a blast. I have done this every year and usually take a day off of work to do so. It is a "Me and my Car day" makes me happy. Oh Yeah,
Your technique sounds like it worked well. I used these http://www.eastwood.com/door-skin-removal-pliers.html on the front lip of my hood to remove some rusty parts of the frame. Also worked well.
Nice write-up, this is on my to-do list. i plan on prcticing on my extra nasty trunk isd before I think about the hood.
Reskinning a hood?????????? Why????????? For the rust at the front edge? Check my gallery, much simpler method
Nope it's a little more involved than just lip rust, frame rust really bad.. Also I have a question...I am not a body man...tell me how when you welded that piece back in to replace the rusted one....how did you access the other side of it to paint it or even weld it from the other side? or is that not done under there?
Yep, thats pretty bad, sorry, thought it was for the front only. Guess I am not used to seeing them rust out like that. I attached the "new" piece to the old hood with screws and checked fit with the fenders, then mig welded the front outer edge and used panel bond adhesive for the under neath area, grind the weld add some filler here and there, and finally I have an anti rust spray that I use on my inner panels. Kinda like a wax coating for the insides. No one can tell its ever been fixed.
Thanks Ryan..yep no better way to spend a Birthday!! seems like I did the same thing last year lol. Oh well getting things done.
