Ok, in the words of Josey Wales, a man has to know his limitations. I am not a painter, and since my buddy who is going to do the paint is still sick, I started work on the 54 hood.
We want a solid hood, no trim on the 54. So today I tried my hand at welding it up, and after almost 6 hours of weld, cool, grind, cool, repeat it's done, I think.
First I welded the seam between the two halves from the top. It went something like this. Weld a few "dots" and then grind them down, repeat.
IMG_0741 by
Robert Moorman, on Flickr
Then I cut a strip to fill in the indention in the hood. Actually 2 pieces because I didn't have a strip long enough to do the whole thing. It went like this.
IMG_0742 by
Robert Moorman, on Flickr
IMG_0743 by
Robert Moorman, on Flickr
When I got it all welded up and ground down, I was rubbing my hand over it and it is still recessed a little.
IMG_0744 by
Robert Moorman, on Flickr
It felt close when I put it in there, but when done it is slightly indented. You may be able to make it out where the straight edge is. It's like my strip wasn't thick enough.
I was very careful and there is no heat warp that I can find, so from that standpoint, I think I did good.
Question 1, will it fill with body filler? Or do I need to weld another piece on it. I do hope it will be ok with filler.
Question 2, on the underneath side, do you go back and trim that seam down some and weld it or just leave it alone?