'71 Challenger hood damage - repairable?

[Duodec]

Back in the early 80s when the Challenger was my daily driver, a beer truck driver didn't set his parking  brake and the truck rolled back and clipped my Challenger, damaged the hood and right fender and destroyed the grille.

I was able to buy a new grille and fender from the dealer but didn't have money for the hood (the insurance settlement sucked).  I just found two film pics from then that I snapped with my phone, and I took one of the damaged area where the hood now sits in storage.  The rust is almost all surface rust, no real pitting.

Is this reasonably repairable, or would I be better off getting a replacement hood?  Flat hoods in good shape aren't cheap last I checked, but bodywork is $$$$, and I don't have that skillset so it would cost.

Thanks for info...

Rich

[CudaJim]

@Duodec

If you were to do the work yourself, and wanted the original hood, I'd suggest tackling that, but I think body shop $$ would add up as you stated.

Hoods, fenders, valances, etc. are nice in that if you can find a good one, it's bolt-on and go, unlike quarter panels, roofs, etc. - I'd tend to want to pay the bodyshop more for that work (I don't want to tackle much of that myself anymore....)

I feel flat hoods are around, and in less demand, but it may take a while.  I have one in Omaha that might work for you for $80, if you feel like a road trip - see my ad in 'E-body parts for sale near Omaha, NE'.

Good luck.

Jim

[RUNCHARGER]

It doesn't look rusty, I think it would be fixable fairly easily. However if you're paying a shop for their time you'll have to weigh the time billed vs finding a good one. I had an NOS flat hood I carted around for about 30 years before finally selling to a member here, I also had a good 70 one that I sold to the same member. So it is possible to find a good one. Chances are if you find a used one it will need some damage repaired as well though. Sometimes it's better to deal with the devil you know.

[anlauto]

Good thing the headlights were protected 

[Duodec]

@anlauto Well, we do silly things when we're younger, work at an auto parts store, and have access to stuff.  However in my defense, I had (have) a full set of Carello H4 and H1 headlights, E-Code, that were installed on the car; those were expensive and hard to get in the mid to late '80s and I wanted them protected.  They're also the reason I had a headlight relay setup on the car because they drew too much current and kept popping the breaker in the headlight switch.

I had a set of Zelmot (Polish) rectangular driving lights clamped to the front bumper too, using another relay and a switch that was       in a hole drilled into the console's top plate.   Young and stupid.  But those driving lights were pretty cool.

[Duodec]

@Duodec

If you were to do the work yourself, and wanted the original hood, I'd suggest tackling that, but I think body shop $$ would add up as you stated.

Hoods, fenders, valances, etc. are nice in that if you can find a good one, it's bolt-on and go, unlike quarter panels, roofs, etc. - I'd tend to want to pay the bodyshop more for that work (I don't want to tackle much of that myself anymore....)

I feel flat hoods are around, and in less demand, but it may take a while.  I have one in Omaha that might work for you for $80, if you feel like a road trip - see my ad in 'E-body parts for sale near Omaha, NE'.

Good luck.

Jim

Thanks for the offer but for the foreseeable future, no time for road trips.  There is a Chicagoland Mopar Connection swap meet on June 4th that I might be able to make; we'll see if any are available and what they go for.  Stuff is always more expensive around here than I read about elsewhere.  The shows and swap meets I used to go to have all disappeared during my 20+ year hiatus.

Replacing the hood does let me consider getting a scooped type... but even the reproductions seem to have jumped a couple of hundred dollars in the last couple of years.  Of course I have no idea how much a body shop would charge to fix the original.  Might be closer to a tie now, assuming a shop would work on the hood on its own, without the car being present.

I don't have the skills to do the work myself, and while it would be interesting to try, I'd need tools also.  There's other spots on the car where a stud welder and slide hammer would be needed, but that money is likely better spent on paying for the work that I'm not prepared to do.

[Duodec]

It doesn't look rusty, I think it would be fixable fairly easily. However if you're paying a shop for their time you'll have to weigh the time billed vs finding a good one. I had an NOS flat hood I carted around for about 30 years before finally selling to a member here, I also had a good 70 one that I sold to the same member. So it is possible to find a good one. Chances are if you find a used one it will need some damage repaired as well though. Sometimes it's better to deal with the devil you know.

Thanks for replying.  I'm going to try to get to an upcoming (June 4th) swap meet and see what is available around here. 

I realize that you can't see the damage in all dimensions but since you say it would be fairly easy to repair, what steps would you take to do that?  I'm thinking remount the hood on the car (to hold it solidly; I don't have any workspace or fixtures large enough), then use a stud welder and puller to pull the curled down area back up.  Then what?

I'd really appreciate the info if you think you can provide it.

Thanks
Rich

[RUNCHARGER]

I don't think a stud welder would fix that.
What I would do is mount the hood on the car with the fender I was going to use and if it lined up well to almost the front edge I would carefully zipcut the damaged outer skin corner piece off, Hammer the inner structure into place and weld in a small patch. But with no zipcutter and welder I don't think you could repair it nicely.
Other than that you could separate the inner and outer skin and then try to hammer the dent out from the inside and if successful then weld it all back together. More work and way more time.

[torredcuda]

To repair any panel it`s always best to have it attached to the vehicle so you can make sure it lines up correctly to the mating parts. To fix your hood I would use a slide hammer to pull up the bent corner back to position then use a hammer and dolly and stud welder to massage the metal back into shape. The other option would be to split the top skin from the inner structure to gain better access to work the metal but I think you could get it good enough with a stud welder.