I have a flat '68 hood that needs quite a bit of block sanding. Should the hood be supported in any particular way so there isn't any flexing or twisting? I want it to be straight.

The worst case is that I make some type of brace that bolts into the hinge bolt holes at the rear and has padded posts for support in the front corners. I would think that would simulate the hood being on the car.

Thoughts?

i just laid mine on a couple of sawhorses, held it fine. you wouldn't want to press so hard it would flex anyway, let the sandpaper do the work.

Have you test fitted it on the car to make sure all of the edges are where they should be ?. If not, put it on the car and adjust if for good to decent gaps and in level to the adjacent panels and if it all looks good then take it off and place it on some saw horses. If the hood had a little to much or not enough curve in it to meet up against the edges of the fender and other panels, now is the time to tweak the hood metal itself so you don't get all done blocking it only to find out one edge of the hood in the middle by the fender is too low or too high. On my 74 Nova hood I did metal work before any primer, fillers, or blocking of it. When I was close to being done with it I put it on the car, got it all adjusted and then blocked over the gaps between the hood and the fenders to where later when it's all polished out it will look like the gaps were cut into the paint and not have the reflection bowed down towards the gaps.
Martinsr had a picture of a trunk lid a while back and the reflection of the tree's in the paint crossed over the gaps without any distortion. I can gaurantee this was not done by blocking each area seperately. If you have the time to block over things like the gaps with the car together it will make the end results in the paint so much nicer.
Jim

The hood came off the car with no problems. The car is totally disassembled so I can't put it on an do the initial blocking. I do plan on reassembling the car before I go too far.

I get what you're saying about blocking it all together. I saw where they did such to a Mopar on DreamCar Garage.

Thanks for the response!

i just laid mine on a couple of sawhorses, held it fine. you wouldn't want to press so hard it would flex anyway, let the sandpaper do the work.

I think that was exactly what I was going to say Jim! ;) Good call. I was much to agressive at block sanding when I did my 69 car a while back ;)
Remember to tap the long board frequently too. This will keep little scratches out of the primer and help the paper do it's job. Good luck!

Dano :beers:

Jim is right on the money with "let the sand paper do the work". Use SHARP, NEW, HIGH QUALITY paper. Don't be afraid to use it only a little bit and throw it away. For goodness sakes, don't be a cheap skate, let the paper do the work fast and then throw it in the garbage.

Brian


There is some other tips in the "Basics of Basics" of Flat panel repairs.... http://www.camaros.net/forum/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=004840