You can email your questions to Professor Hammer at [email protected], or mail to Professor Hammer, c/o Classic Trucks Magazine, 831 S. Douglas St.
El Segundo, CA 9 0245. You’ll receive a personal reply! We’ll print your name and city unless you request otherwise. Ron Covell has made many DVDs
on metalworking processes, and he offers an ongoing series of workshops across the nation covering all aspects of metalworking. Check them out online
at http://www.covell.biz, or call for a current schedule of workshops and their free catalog of DVDs. Phone (800) 747-4631 or (831) 768-0705. You can send a
request by mail to: Covell Creative Metalworking, 106 Airport Blvd. #105, Freedom, CA 95019. You’ll also enjoy Ron’s YouTube channel:
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HAMMER’S
by Ron Covell
[email protected]METALWORKING TIPS
SFitting a new hood to an old truck usually requires a good amount of adjusting.
This month we’ll examine a couple of approaches for getting the fit dialed-in.plates to accomplish this.
Another option is to shorten the links that connect the hinge
baseplate to the hood, but this gets tricky since you will be modifying
the geometry of the hinge system. It will most likely take a lot of
trial and error to get a proper fit-up at both ends of the hood, since
changing the length of the links will affect the vertical and front-to
back alignment of the hood at the same time.Q. I’m working around an area that has been leaded. I melted off
all the lead a couple of inches away from the joint, then cleaned the
area with a wire wheel. When welding near the leaded areas I get a
bright bluish-yellow flash in my welding helmet, and some ugly weld
splatter. I believe this is caused by lead contamination. How can I get
all traces of lead removed from the panel before welding?
Tom Keyes
Via emailA. My favorite product for removing traces of lead is a 3-M Clean and
Strip wheel. Be sure to use proper safety equipment and procedures,
since this sprays a bit of lead dust into the air and you don’t want to
get any lead into your body. You need to dispose of the lead dust in a
responsible manner, also.
I have been told that gun reloading shops sell a liquid product
designed to remove traces of lead from gun parts. I’ve never used this,
but you might want to do some investigation.Q. I have a ’48 Chevrolet 3100 pickup
that I recently restored, and the
majority of the project turned out
great. One of the last details is to get
the hood fitted properly. My painter
recommended buying a new hood,
and to purchase it from a particular
manufacturer, thinking that would
give us the best fit. He painted the
hood separately, and I picked it up and
installed it myself.
I had to massage the center of the
hood and bend in the rear corners to
get it to fit correctly at the cowl, and
I had to adjust the front fenders a bit
to dial-in the fit there. Unfortunately,
after installing the spring-loaded
hinges, the hood won’t lay down on
the cowl gasket—it stands up about ¾
inch above the cowl. After numerous
rounds of adjusting, using the 2x4 at
the front of the hood method, I just can’t get
it to lay down properly at the back edge.
The gap is pretty even across the cowl
area. It’s almost like the hinge plates that
are bolted to the cowl need to drop down
another ¾ inch, but they are bottomed out
now. I’m out of ideas here, do you have any
suggestions?
Dave Graham
Via emailA. It is very common to have fitment
problems when replacing a hood (or any body
panel) on an old vehicle, and this is true
with both original and aftermarket parts. Of
course, it’s always best to deal with these
issues BEFORE any paintwork is done. I
understand that your hood is already painted,
so that will limit your options.
The first thought I have is modifying the
hinges to allow the pivot points to drop down
on the cowl another^3 ⁄ 4 inch. You may be able
to slot the original adjustment holes to make
them a little longer, or it may require some
cutting and welding of the hinge attachment88 classictrucks.com