Next, I made the filler strip for the center of the hood. I used the bead roller with a 90 degree edge and a PU lower. As expected the process distorted the sheet. Don't try to tack a part like this in and pull it down to meet the adjacent panel. Especially in a wide flat, or low crown panel like this. It will end up as a twisted, distorted unsalvageable mess. I'm not sure I can properly explain why this happens but I'll try. There is no stretching or shrinking happening when you do a peak like this. It is a bend. If you look at this piece from the end, the cross section, you see a gradual slope on each side rising to a peak in the center. This slope begins about one third of the way in from the outer edges. Now, if this was made by stretching the metal, there would be no distortion along the outer edges. But, since the process is a bend rather than stretch, the metal in the middle has been moved to a position where it takes up less area width wise. The remedy is to lightly shrink the outer edges evenly on each outer edge so that they also take up less area. You will see the piece lay down easily. After that I needed to run the strip upside down through the English wheel to flatten out the V shape a little so it matched the surrounding metal on the hood a little better.
After a little more work I got it to lay flat and follow the contour of the hood skin. In this picture the strip is just laying on the hood. No clamps, no tacks.
Tacked in and looking good. I think at this point I need to weld in a temporary frame along the bottom of the hood across the back so I can take the hood off the car. I need to weld it up on the bench so I can do some hammer and dolly work while I'm welding and I can't get to the backside while it's on the car.
