Stewart's 1954 Chevy Shop Truck

In the pictures and even in person the hood looked pretty decent.




After digging into it I was wishig I had another hood.

Before I started working on the truck I stopped down Johnny's and grabbed the hood. Johnny was kind enough to haul it back to the house for me.

Normally I have a keen eye. I'm not sure if it was the flat paint or wishfull thinking. Even with the hood in the garage I didn't see how bad it was. I seen a few spots where it was split where the metal bends to sit on the fenders and a few small dents. The top of the hood got by me.


PLEASE don't use red spot putty for body filler. I don't use it at all but if you do use it it's called SPOT PUTTY for a reason. They used bondo and then coated it with red spot putty. Why? To fill in rust dimples. I'm not sure why they felt they had to have that much mud on there.

While stripping the top of the hood I could see some raised metal where I was sanding. Tell tail sign of a dent. I cleaned most of the paint off to start on the peek job. I started looking and it looked like someone was standing on the hood or maybe sitting on it at one time. The center was pushed down and caused two big dent across from each other and two smaller one below them, the crease being right in the middle. I flipped the hood over and gave it a good wack with a rubber mallet right were the hood joins in the middle.

The center of the hood was back where it goes but while the dents looked smaller they where still there. The two small one wasn't that bad. They both poped out with some dolly work. They still had hi spots but they where out. One of the big ones came out with a little work. The other big one was being a pain. I screwed with these dents for 4 hours. I had enough and moved on.

Here what I used for my peek. 1/4 round stock. It's easy to bend as you weld. The heat from the weld is enough to bend it with some mild force.

Not everyone messes with this old stuff so in case you didn't know the hood is two pieces. They are bolted together so if you just try to smooth out the center it will crack back out. You have to weld it up. I wanted a little style so I'm going to peek it instead of smoothing it out.

Starting in the back I put a spot weld. About ever 5 or 6 inched I hit it with the welder. If you have never done this and may want to try it you will need to spot weld both sides of the rod at once. If not the heat from one side will have the rod bent and you will be fight to get a straight line.



When I got to the front I welded spots about every two inches so I could use the heat to bend it over the nose. Spot weld, bend and then wait till it cools off so you don't warp anything then start all over. It takes time.

Going back to the back again I started spot welding between the earlier welds. Taking my time and jumping around to not build up too much heat. It was time consuming waiting so I started cutting out little plugs from 16 gauge to fill in the front emblem holes.


While I was sitting down at eye level I seen the big dent that I got out had pop back down. I didn't want to weld too much without trying to get these out so I flipped the hood over and started pushing the metal around with a hammer and dolly. I had the hood sitting on saw horses and was getting aggressive at times. I got the big dent, on one side out but as I was feeling the metal the two smaller dent had popped back in from where I had them pushing on top of the saw horses.

I went ahead and finished welding my peek. The big dent I never got out got worse from the welder. I did get a little ahead of myself. I think all together I spent 6 hours on 4 dent and only have one out. I was tired and just didn't care too much at this point.
I must have taken 20 pictures of these spots but none of them showed how bad it was in the pics.

I finished sanding the primer, paint and bondo off the top of the hood. At that point I was running on empty for the night. Dirty ticked off and upset that 3 of the 4 dent whipped me.

A skim coat of mud would cover the dents. I just had other plans and needed a smooth top to louver. I wasn't sure what to do.

The problem now is I had messed with the dents so much they where oil canning. It was one of those times that it seemed it just kept getting worse.


I walked away and came back fresh to figure out what I was going to do. I don't have a nice torch set. This is one of those times I wish I had a little jewelers torch. This plumbers torch will have to do.

Rag and a pitcher of ice water

Heat up the area, a few light taps inwards with a hammer and dolly and douce with a rag full of cold water.

I didn't like the idea of water on bare metal but what are ya gonna do?

I wish I would have had Amy video taping this. The two small dents came out with a pow! The bigger one I had to work with in a few different spots. My torch just wasn't too good for the big one but it did come out. Best of all no oil canning on any of them.


I know you still can't see much in the pics but I'm pretty happy with it. I may try to do a little more dolly work on the one now that I know I can use that plumbers torch to shrink the metal when I need to.

I cut out the bracing and ground all the paint off the inside of the hood so Mike over at Cornfield Customs could do his thing.

Fenders are on it loosely.

Time for the stock bracing.




I got both sides done and put the hood on the truck for now. I still have plenty to do to it but it's getting there.

I bought a seal from LMC and I grabbed a windshield at the last swap meet I went to. I stuck the seal on the truck for a couple days to try to get it to form. I didn't care for the way it fit on the glass.

I have put in a few windshields and hardly ever have trouble. This one was a pain. Amy and I messed with it for what seemed like hours. I couldn't get it to go in.

I tried different ways but nothing seemed to work. I was getting mad by this time. Johnny and Randy stopped down and they gave it a shot.

We fooled with it for a while and then gave up. I surely didn't want to bust a brand new windshield.

Late that night I finished putting in the rearend.

I need some rims for this project. Black steelies maybe? Anyone have a pair? Two Chevy BP and two Ford BP?

The next day I figured I'd be up to getting that windshield in. Amy came out and we fought with it and almost had it. When it would get close the rope would slip right out. We had it other than the top section. All 4 corners were in! I have never seen one give anyone such a fit. So close but she wouldn't go.

You know what happens next.

I pushed a little too hard and she busted. There goes my money, all tied up in busted shivers of fine glass all over.

After it was busted it really didn't matter on how rough I was. So I beat and pushed trying to get it to seat. It wouldn't. Only thing I could think of was either I just can't put glass in or the windshield was cut wrong.

I was crushed. I'm on a strict budget and that screw up just busted that budget. John Howard's glass guy came to the rescue. I wasn't going to try it again after busting one. He found me a windshield for $200.00 and a little over $100.00 to come down and put it in.

I had scratched my freshly paint dash trying to get the first windshield in, so late the night before he came I repainted the dash, windshield lip and shot the rest of the inside of the cab.