The 'Camino has a kink in the hood from someone forcing it closed instead of oiling the hinges. It kinked at the built-in factory "fault line" . How reliably can that be fixed? I think I'm going to use the hood from the parts car instead, but if that one is too rough I might want to fix the original. I'm just concerned that it will be too weak to stay straight after being fixed.

Watcha think?

Whoever kinked that hood must be more than human. Was your car's previous owner the Hulk?

You'd be surprised Z, many cars/trucks of that era have this problem. It comes from a combination of a built-in fold/faultline in the underside structure of the hood. This is intended to force the hood to fold down in a collision intead of moving backward through the windsheild. The problem is these vehicles also have VERY strong springs and if they are not kept oiled, they tend to bind on one side. When this happens, the person closing the hood pulls down harder - kinking the hood.

Surprisingly easy to do.

IMO- if the metal on the surface of the hood is torn, you have to grind it out beyond that and reweld it of course down the vertical edge. If the sheetmetal beyond any tear is bent, you will have a hard time getting it perfect again. It may be easier to use another hood...

IMO- if the metal on the surface of the hood is torn, you have to grind it out beyond that and reweld it of course down the vertical edge. If the sheetmetal beyond any tear is bent, you will have a hard time getting it perfect again. It may be easier to use another hood...

I doubt it will be torn, but it has kinked several style lines in the hood as well as the structure underneath. I'm guessing it would be a drag to straighten and that it may be too weak to keep it's shape afterward - thus my worry.

Do you have a shot of the underside bracing?

Most of the strength in this type of hood is in the vertical edge & the substructure. If both those are good/repaired (and you lube the hinges well), the surface sheetmetal will be fine structurally.

Do you have a shot of the underside bracing?

Most of the strength in this type of hood is in the vertical edge & the substructure. If both those are good/repaired (and you lube the hinges well), the surface sheetmetal will be fine structurally.

It is bent at the factory-designed spot for it to bend in a collision at which point there is very little structure. In other words, the structural part is flattened against the outer sheetmetal at this one point and that "channel" runs from one side of the hood to the other so that the hood will fold at that point in a crash. I'll get a pic to show you what I mean.

That hood is dead, imo. Unless you weld a length of angle iron to it. '73-'79 Chevy pickups were notorious for this. I think J.C. Whitney had a repair kit for them... a length of thicker steel to attach to that vertical edge. The hood is so physically large that it needed heavy duty mechanisms to hold it up. As soon as the grease dried up, those mechanisms became very stubborn, and the hood would buckle from the effort needed to bring it closed.

That hood is dead, imo. Unless you weld a length of angle iron to it. '73-'79 Chevy pickups were notorious for this. I think J.C. Whitney had a repair kit for them... a length of thicker steel to attach to that vertical edge. The hood is so physically large that it needed heavy duty mechanisms to hold it up. As soon as the grease dried up, those mechanisms became very stubborn, and the hood would buckle from the effort needed to bring it closed.

Thanks Ocn, about what I thought.

I had a few of the pickups in question. :AH-HA_wink: