Hello,

I am currently trying to restore an old steel hood. The hood is in really great condition, except for the fact that someone shot a few small caliber bullets in it. Now naturally i know some of you may be thinking, just buy another hood, however; i prefer to restore the original hood, especially since there is no rust just bad paint and this hole. The only problem is the bullet hit the hood from an angle and the hit the side of a dip, imagine the hood not being flat but having a small scoop and it hitting the side of the scoop.

My plan of attack was going to be to bend the torn metal back outwards and make it flush with the hood, which will just leave it with peices missing. then use bondo or fiberglass (most likely bondo) then fill it in. My only concern is the heat from the engine ruining the bond, and I am not experienced with bondo, how do i make it stop from falling through the hole and how do i allow for a smooth angle?

I could even weld than sand it down. this is a cheap restore trying to spend under 100 -150 dollars

Any suggestions? thanks so much!

The top image is what its supposed to be and the bottom is the piece missing (there are some bent inward pieces.)

 

The best thig to do is to bend the metal back to place as best u can and weld a piece in there after u weld grind down the weld marks and bang the weld piece flush or in that same curve of the scoop. After this use this stuff called bondo hair wich is like bondo and fiberglass mixed sand this down as best you can. Now its hard to get this stuff smooth so after your done sanding this stuff down you want to put bondo on top of it and sand that down so you get that nice smooth finish. Good brands for these bondos are BONDO. Oh yeah and you want to sand in a certain order when you sand the bondo hair sand with 40 sand paper with a little block sander. After thats smooth ruffin it up with 36 grinding paper so the other straight bondo will stick put that on and sand with 40 then move up to 80, then 150, 220, and 320 to get a good finish becareful you dont completley sand sand away the bondo. and when you prime the bondo spot and you se little hole dont worry you didnt screw anything up thats typical. You need to go out and get putty coat wich is like bondo but is alot smoother then bondo when sanded and fills those little cracks. And the heat from the engine wont ruin the bondo you'll be ok. Good luck.