any way to fix this hood with sunken sheet metal? its perfect otherwise.

[sircrunch]

before i obtained this truck my nephew and uncle went a little haywire sanding and grinding the underside of the hood. when i picked up the truck and its pieces when i bought it, i was shocked at the shiny metal underside of the hood. it was so clean you could eat breakfast off of it. sadly though, i think that they went a little too far and got the metal a bit too hot and the metal may have also got a bit thin.

Now i'm left with a perfect, dent free, rust free, fully prepped SUNKEN IN hood. The hood still has the factory padding above the hood braces. In fact, the hood is nice and straight above the braces. The sheet metal is sunk down everywhere else. You can put the palm of your hand in the middle of the warped place and lift with very little pressure and it goes back into place. Let go, and gravity brings it back down.

I'm hoping to fix this myself. Perhaps with some sort of extra bracing. I'd love to keep this hood. Anyone got any advice or experience with this problem?

The hood is sunk down inside the red circles shown here;

[toolboxchev]

Dont shoot the messanger!

Get a OEM replacement, Its the one part off a parts truck that has a high probability of surviving. There is a lot of them out there.

[sircrunch]

*pew pew pew pew pew* lol

[KQQL IT]

Shrink it.
https://youtu.be/cLfS6MhTHcw

[HO455]

It sounds like the metal got hot too hot in areas and it expanded unevenly. This usually results in high and low areas. KQQLIT is correct about shrinking the metal surface. A competent sheet metal worker can do this for you. They are not easy to find and don't come cheap.
Personally I would also do more searching for metal shrinking videos and try to tackle the repair myself if I couldn't find someone in the budget to make it right.
Good luck.

[72c20customcamper]

On a hood I would use a fine welding tip with oxy acetylene. Propane will cause to much area being heated. I had to do it on my bed side. Idea is heat a tiny area untill it bulges out then tap it down . Where its heated it will shrink as the outer area puts pressure on it. After you tap it hit it with a wet rag . Check if it still oil cans and repeat till it stays put. Takes experience not something you just pick up a torch and do. Your going to need to find an old school body man .

But if the metal is to thin it will become very brittle.

[c60clf]

Try taking a wide putty knife and sliding it against outer skin cutting foam loose the whole way around each area? It often works depending on severity of warpage,hope this helps,Pat

[StingRay]

If they got it hot they already shrank it there where it has the low spots. If such is the case you will need to use a hammer and dolly to gently stretch the material back up. You will not be hammering the material up but squishing the tin between the hammer and dolly. This makes it a tiny bit thinner and increases the surface area of the tin. It's like rolling out dough. An English wheel does exactly this as well as a planishing hammer. A slapper and dolly might actually be a better choice if doing it by hand.

[jimmy70]

If You resort to buying a used hood, stick with a 2wd version only. 4x4 hoods get "oil canned" due to excessive bouncing over time.