This is part eight of auto restoration series of posts on this highly custom 1938 Chevrolet Truck restoration, for the introduction to the project see part one. In post two we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five of auto restoration takes us through the panel restoration of the original inner grille housing panel and a custom touch of deleting the cowl vent panel.  Post six of auto restoration takes care of the lower cowl metal and left hand front fender.  Post seven of auto restoration covers the toe board panel, door lock upgrades, and mainly the upgrades to the inner fender support panel; this panel has to be heavily modified to take the new location of the hood side panels.  Post eight of auto restoration looks at how the custom hood was created to open by pulling forward instead of the original butterfly design.  Post nine involves completion of the custom hood skin, and design and fabrication of the inner structure.  Post ten of auto restoration shows the firewall modifications.

We want to show how the custom hood was created to open by pulling forward instead of the original butterfly design.  This was done at the request of the customer and since the engine will be all new and custom it’s more practical for access.

Classic Truck Restoration: Original Chevy truck hood

Butterfly style hood from original truck.  Patterns are taken from this hood, so that it will have the exact same shape when closed.

Classic Chevy Restoration – 1938 Chevrolet Pepsi Truck: Custom Jig for Hood

Custom jig created to fabricate the hood support and custom opening mechanism.  Cardboard pattern for the front nose.

 

Custom support fit checked with the cab and grill.  You can get an idea of how the hood will look opened here.

 

A view of the hinges that will move the hood.

Custom Fabrication – 1938 Chevrolet Pepsi Truck: Custom Aluminum Hood Nose

Aluminum hood nose shaped from a flat sheet.

 

Marking out the pattern for the main body of the hood.

 

Rolling the form into the hood blank.

 

Clecos holding the main hood piece into position with the nose section.

 

More clecos in place, to get ready for welding the sections.

 

AC TIG welding of the two sections is now complete.

 

To complete this section, metal finishing of the weld.

 

This is part eight of auto restoration series of posts on this highly custom 1938 Chevrolet Truck restoration, for the introduction to the project see part one. In post two we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through the panel restoration of the original inner grille housing panel and a custom touch of deleting the cowl vent panel.  Post six takes care of the lower cowl metal and left hand front fender.  Post seven covers the toe board panel, door lock upgrades, and mainly the upgrades to the inner fender support panel; this panel has to be heavily modified to take the new location of the hood side panels.  Post eight looks at how the custom hood was created to open by pulling forward instead of the original butterfly design.  Post nine involves completion of the custom hood skin, and design and fabrication of the inner structure.  Post ten shows the firewall modifications.