Topic: "Skinning" a HOOD or Trunk Lid, techniques & tools?

[67gtasanjose]

Has anyone had any success in removing and reinstalling/ re-using a hood or trunk lid SKIN?

Surface rust between the panels of an otherwise good date-correct panel will eventually grow into blistering bubbles in the paint if left exposed to moisure in humid climates so there must be a way of dealing with this. I have seen other posts about dealing with rust and opening things up to gain access but what about a dismantling of the hood or trunk lid at the seams? Seperating the putty and sealers without destroying the shape too badly? Any "trick tools"? Ideas?

[ruppstang]

Tried it once and gave up but I am no body man.

[cobrajetchris]

My advice find a good solid hood and rust proof it as best you can without disturbing factory seams. If you are concerned with the date, just cut it out and but weld it into the replacement hood.

[Bob Gaines]

My advice find a good solid hood and rust proof it as best you can without disturbing factory seams. If you are concerned with the date, just cut it out and but weld it into the replacement hood.

Very good advice  .

[67gtasanjose]

Tried it once and gave up but I am no body man.

Yeah I had an extra, kinda rough hood here I was thinking about trying out any potential techniques suggested on.

My advice find a good solid hood and rust proof it as best you can without disturbing factory seams. If you are concerned with the date, just cut it out and but weld it into the replacement hood.

I had thought about this too but was hoping to end up with 2 decent hoods out of the 3 hoods I have, ending up with an extra one to have hanging around from the ceiling in the garage for any potential future need. The original, "date correct" hood needed a little more bodywork (filler for dents) than the other '68 hood that is rather nice but it had been out in the weather a bit in So.Calif. for a while. Also, the '68 hood has different "features" than the '67 hood so it is just a little more than just the date codes. I'll figure something out and it might just be doing the more work on the '67 hood, leaving the '68 as the extra hood.

Thanks guys 

[mtinkham]

You might try converting the rust and then encapsulating it.  Where it is a "loose" panel, you can orientate the panel and treat one section at a time.  Lots of rust converters and encapsulators available.  Would be better than doing nothing.

[67gtasanjose]

One of the things I was thinking, that is if there were a way of separating without destroying the two halves of the hood, was possibly opening up both of the two decent hoods I have, (after experimenting on the 3rd 'scrap' hood I have) and cleaning up rust etc, straightening the rust-free, date-correct hood up better from the inside (it has a really long scrape about 1/4' deep and about 3ft long near the outer body line, about 3 inches away from the fender's inner edge~ this is the result of a "friend" who was carrying a VW bus on a forklift and didn't see my car, scraping the hood nearly the whole distance and he didn't even stop till the windshield was laying basically inside-out, happened circa 1991) I was planning, should I have decided a way to accomplish this, while they were open both open, to decide which top half would need the least work. I believe the better top half would be the '68 but more could be revealed once it was looked at thoroughly where you cannot see up front on the leading edge.

I see the spot welds do not look to difficult to remove, but I wondered if there might be a tool that rolls the edge back up, similar to  the tools you can find that can roll it back down without hurting the panel...like a seam spreader of sorts.

This was just an idea I had, I was inspired by somebody reworking an old caved in and rusted trunk lid by separating the halves, he did it because a replacement wasn't available, even reproduction. I think it may have been in a youtube video about rust encapsulating if I remember right.

 Well, it WAS just an idea, I am not going to destroy good original metal if I cannot do a nice job on them.

Richard

[J_Speegle]

Of course another option is to transfer the dates from one assembly to another. not unusual to see this on restorations where the owner is interested in "numbers matching"

[ng8264723]

This can be done.  I realize it has been a while since this was posted if still interested let me know.  There is a way to modify vise grips to lift the pinched over seam.  I can give you a link idf still interested

[67gtasanjose]

This can be done.  I realize it has been a while since this was posted if still interested let me know.  There is a way to modify vise grips to lift the pinched over seam.  I can give you a link idf still interested

I have a "practice hood", so I could experiment on it. Sure, shoot me the link!
Richard

[ng8264723]

This can be done and has been done
read this thread.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182565