Reshaping a hood

[Jim in LA]

I put this here so more people might see it. I have two 8N hoods that are nose flattened due to contact with immovable objects. I have tried to hammer them out without much success. I am going to try to press them into shape either a small bottle jack or hydraulic ram. Does this look feasible?

 

[Ray,IN]

Every time I hammered on sheet metal the end result was a bunch of small dents in slightly straighter sheet metal. Now I sneak up on the job, using a rubber hammer with the metal laying on a layer of foam. When I get done it looks like I did it though.

 

[Oregon Tractor Jack]

What I have done in the past is to get several poly feed bags double them up and partially fill with sand. Put the bag on a saw horse and then beat pm the hood with a mallet or a block of wood and a hammer using the sand to conform to the shape of the hood. I would make a wooden dolly out of oak and shape so the end is rounded to match the shape of the hood. You might have to make several. I have done like a half dozen grilles this way. You should also invest in a good body hammer and several dollies of various shapes. These help to get the hood to a more finished condition. Let You Tube be your friend, there a tons of videos on straightening and shrinking sheet metal.

OTJ

 

[da.bees]

It sounds straightforward but it required a real artist to straighten car bodies manufactured during same period as your tractor. Research "hammer and dolly" under auto body repair. You'll notice that instead of beating on dent, you push on dent with dolly while hitting crease where dent meets undamaged metal. That's called "dolly off". Once dent is out, small imperfections are taken out with "dolly on" method. Don't start me to lying about how to shrink metal that has been stretched from beating on it. If you know blacksmithing, metal can be heated then cooled so it's soft and without memory. Pull dent out with slid hammer then heat/cool to restore hardness and memory.

Piece of cake,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if you know what you are doing and a few years experience behind you.

 

[Duner Wi]

With out seeing you damaged hoods this might work for you.
Rig up your jacking scheme and then with smallish ball peen hammer start the off dolly tapping out side and using a much bigger hammer or chunk of metal inside. A thousand taps are better than 10 big hammer blows. If I was doing it, I would do it differently because I have a little experience with backing out dents. Go slow, get there faster.

 

[1948CaseVAI]

Can you not find a reproduction after maket one? A home repaired one will look horrible unless you are a high dollar body guy.

 

[Jim in LA]

Can you not find a reproduction after maket one? A home repaired one will look horrible unless you are a high dollar body guy.

I bought a reproduction hood a couple years ago and it would not fit without cutting peices and rewelding.

 

[da.bees]

Can you not find a reproduction after maket one? A home repaired one will look horrible unless you are a high dollar body guy.

I believe I speak for many when I say if not for the challenges, I wouldn't own all these old tractors. I know old boys that will be happy to knock 5 strokes off your game if you give them your tee-time and pay greens fee.

 

[jon f mn]

That kind of work is tough to get right. Ive been doing it for years and still can only do crude work like that. But your plan should get basic shape back. Then some hammer work will get it closer, how close depends on skill and patience. As said, dolly the dent and hit the crease. Dolly hammer set will help because there are different shapes in the set to either stretch or shrink depending on what you need. Heat is also good, but takes some skill to get temps right. To shrink you want the metal just red, but not bright red, then cool with wet wraps for sheet metal. If tou shrink it too much you can hammer it to stretch it again. Too red from heat causes it to get hard and brittle.

 

[Hobo,NC]

You will never hammer it out. You are on the right track you will need to push are pull. I pull I make a hook out of flat bar to go under the edge weld a eye on it to hook a chain. Bolt the hood on the tractor and pull it up nose to a telephone pole and pull with a come alone. I have had good success doing this on a N hood.

I will look for the hook I run across it from time to time. I almost fold it over to bite the underside of the hood. I don't remember if the frame rail for the hood runs all the way around I remember they pull out well. I have cut the frame out to section a new panel in its a bunch of work. : (

 

[DanielW]

I'm not sure how well you'd achieve this with an N hood where you can't exactly manipulate it around too easily, but when hammering metal out one trick is having the right block on the opposite side. It's something you learn when hammering & tensioning large circular sawmill blades: If you hammer with just the open air on the far side or against a steel anvil/dolly, you'll stretch the metal even more than it already was, and it'll be very hard/impossible to get it correct. If you hammer onto the end grain of a hardwood block or put a piece of thick leather on your anvil/dolly and have that on the far side (and if you're really good at knowing where and how to hammer) you can move the metal through without appreciably stretching it, and possible even shrink it back to the original area. Jon's post above is spot on.

To straighten, tension, or hammer-through metal well definitely takes the right block on the far side, the right hammer profile, often the right application of heat, and skill. And I'm certainly not superb at it myself, but with enough time I can do a pretty passable job.

That's not suggesting your idea won't work: With your plan and some other hammering/prying you can probably get it 80-90% of the way to where it was originally, and certainly good enough to run. If that's all that matters to you, I'd say go for it. An doing your plan and then using filler/paint, you can probably make it look pretty much perfect in the end. But if you want to try and get it perfect by hammering/bending/prying alone, I'd suggest getting a few good autobody dollies, holding a thick piece of leather over them as you hold them on the far side with your one hand. Then get an appropriate body hammer with slightly radiused tip and work from the edge of the bent region inward. A good body guy can hammer out almost anything with enough time and the right hammer(s) & dolly. But it takes time, skill, and working from the edge of the dented region in. If you just start hammering or pressing from the centre of the dent, you'll stretch the metal and never get it back to perfect.

 

[Hobo,NC]

I have BTDT push are pull is the best option.

 

[Jim in LA]

You will never hammer it out. You are on the right track you will need to push are pull. I pull I make a hook out of flat bar to go under the edge weld a eye on it to hook a chain. Bolt the hood on the tractor and pull it up nose to a telephone pole and pull with a come alone. I have had good success doing this on a N hood.

I will look for the hook I run across it from time to time. I almost fold it over to bite the underside of the hood. I don't remember if the frame rail for the hood runs all the way around I remember they pull out well. I have cut the frame out to section a new panel in its a bunch of work. : (

Framework go from front corners to the back of the hood. Your procedure sounds the most reasonable.

 

[INCase]

I put this here so more people might see it. I have two 8N hoods that are nose flattened due to contact with immovable objects. I have tried to hammer them out without much success. I am going to try to press them into shape either a small bottle jack or hydraulic ram. Does this look feasible?

might work. maybe? worth a try. i would think whatever you're pressing against the inside of the dent should be round and be of a larger diameter. maybe some of the dent repair tools that are out there may help give you something to press the inside with. Not sure if harbor freight sells those things or not.

 

[Hobo,NC]

This is the grill it may help.

gill measurement

 

[Hobo,NC]

Know good

 

[Jim in LA]

might work. maybe? worth a try. i would think whatever you're pressing against the inside of the dent should be round and be of a larger diameter. maybe some of the dent repair tools that are out there may help give you something to press the inside with. Not sure if harbor freight sells those things or not.

The nose of both hoods have been flattened somewhat due to no bumper and no brakes. I'm trying to figure a way to mke the hood pointed again. The OE hood steel is thick and hard to hammer. I bought a body dolly and hammer kit at HF. I have some 1 in. square tubing and flat bar, I can make a jig to hold it in place so it's not moving around when I'm working on it.