Aluminum Hood extension.

[dirkbalter]

Hello,
After stripping my front hood from the paint / primers / bondo, the gap on the front lip towards the front mask is too big. Looking thru the forum, I understand that the aluminum parts were custom fitted at assembly.  I intend to weld a small aluminum strip across the front to extend the hood in order to compensate. Has that been done before? What should I watch out for? Are there other solutions? My hood fits in all other directions very good and I don’t really want to look into a replacement hood for several reasons.
As always, your help is appreciated.
Dirk

[Benz Dr.]

The hood is made from two pieces that are spot welded together. I think you may find that there could be contamination between the sandwiched layers that may cause problems for you when trying to weld more material on to the hood. I will ask my body man what he would do.

[GGR]

The hood has 3 numbers stamped on it. You may be able to determine if the hood you have is original to the car by comparing these numbers with the ones on the data card. If the hood is original to the car and has no signs of alteration, your problem may be with the front mask. Has it been repaired/replaced before, and if so is it sitting where it should?

[dirkbalter]

The overall hood looks good but the front edge has been tampered with. I looked at the possibility of moving the mask slightly in. The connection points of the mask with the inner / outer fenders as well as the side and rear hood gaps look very good. To me it appears that a modification or extension of the front hood edge would be the best adjustment. I am assuming an approx. 5-6mm gap all around?   

[cabrioletturbo]

Your best bet is adjusting the nose, not the hood. The nose is made of steel, easier to work with, especially if it had been previously altered. Aluminium is tricky, as mentioned previously.
Have the nose readjusted and you are good to go.

[Cees Klumper]

I'm sure you know this already, but weren't the aluminum pieces adjusted at the factory with lead to make them fit?

[mdsalemi]

As I recall, replacement hoods are supplied oversized, and trimmed to fit the opening.
I had a "junkyard" hood (bonnet for you Brits) supplied with my car that my Uncle never got around to fitting. When the restorer got hold of it, the though of resizing (yeah, that "adding aluminum" thing) a hood to fit was daunting, and he said he'd probably end up spending a lot of time (=money) and the most expedient alternative was getting a new hood (at the time this was $1,700) and trimming to fit.

[waltklatt]

If the gaps are even all around sides and back, leave hood alone. Nose is next to adjust, but first....see if grille fits snugly to the nose piece before moving anything.
Does the notch on the front fit the grille? Look at all edges.
Then adjust the nose a bit.
Done this three times and hood was left alone. 
Nose is more easily managed.

[stickandrudderman]

I have had a bead welded along the edge of a bonnet of a 190SL that restored. You do need a skilled welder because of the double skin but it does give satisfactory results.

[Scottcorvette]

I had to do the same with a pair of repro doors on my Mustang, they were miles too short for the aperture, it took forever making tacks onto the edge of the skin and then filing it round, hanging and adjusting the door every time, and that was on steel so a lot easier to weld than aluminium, its got to be easier than cutting off the front end and re positioning it though surely.

If you think it is the hood that is wrong you would be better trying to make the hood fit rather than making good bodywork fit a bad hood. I would have thought a competent aluminium welder should be able to do that.

[dirkbalter]

Thank you all for responding. The majority of the responses suggest adjusting the mask. Prior to disassembling and restoring the car, I build several jigs, coming of the original sheet-metal, to insure the replacement panels end up in the right location. One of them was the mask location. That’s why I am hesitating to just move it in a little bit.  I will definitely revisit that possibility. Aluminum welding is also out of my field of expertise. I will talk to our welder next week to see what he thinks.