Bend hood to fit? Anyone try?

[2fpower]

Working on my 45 project and I have an early hood that fits great everywhere, except just does not fit very well in regard to the rear sides. It projects about three eights inch on each side. Has anyone ever tried to reshape this to fit the cowl better?

 

[middlecalf]

Following… I have the same issue but only on my passenger side.

 

[cruiserkev]

Haven't tried it myself but I bet careful use of a ratchet strap would pull those sides in closer.

 

[peesalot]

I tried this and found that the louvers act like a bead roll on a panel. pull it in to where you want it then I made a wood die shaped with sander to fit under louvers with a bit tighter radius and gently tapped them with poly hammer just enough to massage the bend to hold the corner, it worked, over bending it to get it to stay just seemed to pull the corner in oddly, once I got the louvers shape just a bit it held.

 

[2fpower]

I tried this and found that the louvers act like a bead roll on a panel. pull it in to where you want it then I made a wood die shaped with sander to fit under louvers with a bit tighter radius and gently tapped them with poly hammer just enough to massage the bend to hold the corner, it worked, over bending it to get it to stay just seemed to pull the corner in oddly, once I got the louvers shape just a bit it held.

would love to see a picture... I think I understand what you are saying.

How did you pull it to where you wanted?

 

[TEakins]

I would try ratchet straps and maybe some blocking with wood at points you don't want to bend, so the only area free to bend is the back outer curl. You probably will have to bend a tiny bit more than what you measured to allow for some spring back. If you overbend it you can probably fine tune it pulling it back by hand.

 

[2fpower]

Well, here’s what I did…. First I tried, pulling across the body trying to do one side at a time to isolate just the worst side… I did use an expanding wood clamps to basically block the point where I wanted the bend to start. That was a huge idea— thanks for the idea of blocking certain areas. unfortunately, It did not do much at all…. Except the clam bent the edge of the hood a little….

 

[2fpower]

So the second idea was to pull downward and heat the internal structure red hot. This moved it about an eighth.

 

[2fpower]

Finally, I decided to used my extra body weight (thank you Desk job )and kept moving the internal clamp/block pushing down the hood and it was able to bend it right where I wanted….