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Thanks JWL, that is helpful. The weatherstrip adhesive may be a good route to go.

I finally started working on the hood project. I had my wife and oldest daughter help get the hood off the car. I wasn't sure how heavy it would be once it was off, but now I know it's not bad. The underside of the hood had lots of pitting and rust, along with some leftover insulation.

I took an angle grinder with a wire brush to it and got it all cleaned off. Then hit it with a good scrubbing of Ospho to neutralize anything that remained. I let it sit for a day then sprayed a wet coat of black epoxy primer. I'm going to let it dry then probably hit the visible areas with flat black paint to protect the primer. It won't hold up long term with UV.

I removed the hinges, the springs, and the rubber bumpers for the hood. I got the sandblasting cabinet back up and running after a year dormant and cleaned everything off. The hinges were caked in grime, dirt, and dust. They cleaned up nicely. I then painted them with the same metallic paint I've been using for the other bolts that I've cleaned and restored.

The springs were hung with weights on the end to open them up a bit, then sprayed black. The rubber bits had decades of dirt and lots of paint overspray on them, and the sandblaster made them look nearly new again.

While I had the hood off I took the opportunity to clean up the firewall a bit. The original paint is on there and I have no plans of repainting the car anytime soon. So I decided to keep the original paint there as an homage to what came from the factory. It was filthy and covered in primer and paint overspray. I did a lot of wet sanding, compounding, and waxing to bring back the original color and some of its luster.

-Kevin

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These two bolts connecting the front fenders to the radiator support....are they supposed to be body color or silver?

-Kevin

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If you are referring to the screws that hold the upper splasher, photos in the archive (unknown if the cars are original or restored) would seem to indicate at least on some cars the screws were natural.

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Cadmium plated.

The silver Cadmium paint for Eastwood work great to spiffy up old fasteners and also the hood hinges. Except for the springs which are black.

Thanks both of you. Yes, I knew that the splasher bolts were cadmium/silver, but wasn't sure about the other two behind it. I'll pull them tomorrow and sandblast/paint them.

I'm hoping to paint the edges of the hood and fenders tomorrow if the wind cooperates. I need to get this wrapped up and reinstalled by Saturday and I have a busy schedule until then.

-Kevin

The wind finally stopped yesterday and we had nice temps in the mid 70's. So I finished up the prep work on the areas to to be painted and masked them off. A friend of mine who just sold his body shop (after 30 years of owning) gave me some tips that really helped out.

I shot some single stage urethane in the same paint code that the car was painted in previously. The Harbor Freight detail gun made it easy without making a mess and used very little paint.

Once the paint had dried, I cut and fit the new hood pad to shape. It's one I got off RockAuto, came in a big rectangle. There is a backing on it that allows it to be glued. Once happy with the fit, I sprayed the hood and pad with upholstery contact cement, then installed. I put down a section of sound deadener prior to the pad going on....the hood sounds like solid wood now.

The whole front end looks better now. I hated opening the hood before because it was so ugly. But now it looks much more presentable and complete. The engine itself is still nasty, but everything else around it is coming together. Compare the before to the after.

Now I just need to figure out how to align the hood correctly and I'm done with this project.

-Kevin

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Looking great!

Local car show today with all proceeds going to a local cancer foundation. It was held in our nice downtown area, in conjunction with the farmer's market. ~110 cars in attendance. Most were restomods, some hot rods, and a few were restored or untouched originals.

The family came for a bit of it and we had a great time.

I waxed up the car late last night and ended up catching the sunset just right. Got a few good pictures. The paint shines up decently, but definitely not perfect.

I will also mention that the hood pad made a huge difference. I can barely hear the engine now, inside or out. The annoying tick from the vacuum pump is much less audible now. I highly recommend it.

-Kevin

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Thanks for the note on the hood pad. I always thought my engine was unusually loud, even considering I have the original exhaust still. I'll look into getting one.

P.S. Nice pictures

Uh oh...

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