The top of my hood is in preety good shape with only one small dent but under, Im missing all the foam that goes between the support. I was thinking of useing some expanding foam but not sure if it will withstand the heat from the engine. Anyone got some suggestions?
The problem with the expanding foam is, you have to be really carefull, because it can actually push up and put dents into the hood skin as it expands. I wouldn't use it. We just use a urethane to reglue it back together just like it originally was.
you might have an easier time finding a new hood. i know you expected to hear that. i used to work in a body shop, and we used alot of different glues and sealants. some of the 2 part stuff for gluing panels on might work, but im not sure if it would have enough build up. try reading the can on some expanding foam. maybe it would work after all. look for a temp range. or hell, put some on a chunk of scrap and see what happens if you close the hood with that scrap sitting on the valve cover.
if your doing body work anyway, spot welding the frame to the hood works best. but the frame was just epoxied to the hood skin at the factory. ive used JB weld to re-glue it worked pretty good. just make sure to either glue a different spot then the factory did or scrape off the factory adhesive. if your talking about the insulator pad on the hood, then just go to a junkyard, find a newer car that has a big sheet attached to the hood and cut to fit.
The reason we use the urethane, is that it still gives a little, but will still stick forever, (if you clean the surface really, really good first, lol. The only problem with spot welding is, if you have a rough ride at all, over time they start to show up in the paint as dings in the skin, since the frame is riggid and the skin has a little flex to it (being just sheat metal). Not to mention it would be a lot more body work to fix all those spot welds and the little bit of warpage they leave behind, before you paint. We've done this on hundreds of cars over the years with no problems at all, and it's the only thing we found to reattach roof skins after installing a few thousand watts and watching them separate from the frames also, lol. Just my 2 cents.
id listen to him, im not a body guy, and i welded the supports on my wheeler hood, then rolled it, then proceded to dance a jig on the hood. needless to say, they are no longer connected
