Removing hood emblems and smoothing questions

[buildinga55]

I am taking the Chevrolet Thriftmaster emblems off the side of my 48. Wondering how the best way is to smooth that area? There seems to be a rivet holding the center of the bracket and the more I looked at the little attachment strip on the outside of the hood, the more it looked like it might be necessary to keep the hood hinge section on the inside of the hood in tack. Can someone let me know if I should take the strip off that the emblem mounts to or grind it down or what in order to smooth that area without affecting the hood hinge on the inside. Thanks

[sgtusmc]

I used a wire wheel on my drill and cleaned the area down to bare metal. Welded a strip to the hood and welded in the holes. then ground it down. Then filled it with a skim coat of filler.