End of the Line on 1957 Hood Refurbishment

Yesterday I determined the 1957 hood is damaged beyond my ability to repair it so I decided to stop working on it and return to the 1959 hood refurbishment. Unfortunately I have $200 worth of bead blasting and probably 6 hours of work into it already that I am going to have to walk away from. My inner voice is telling me I am wasting my time going any further and to have it professionally repaired would be very cost prohibitive. The issue I am dealing with are dents that have been caused by the hood being closed on something in the engine compartment so the dents protrude outwards instead of inward like hail damage etc...very hard to repair properly..

I did a 400 grit wet sand on the '59 hood. I will need to put on another coat of primer for build purposes and an additional wet sanding to get it ready for paint. Not perfect it will be "fit for purpose" for my driver status car.....

The 1957 Hood Plus Strategy Considerations

I have spent a few hours trying to prep the 1957 hood for primer. Unfortunately my endeavors have not met with much success. The hood actually might be too far gone to salvage.. There is a small dent/bulge in the hood probably caused by it being shut on something that was left sitting on the engine? It is proving to be very difficult to repair and I am getting close to giving up on the process. I have to admit my "shade tree" bodywork skills are probably being pushed to the limit and as a result it might be time to turn it over to an expert or even pursue a replacement hood? However this all becomes a secondary consideration if I do not plan to reassemble the 1957??

I continue to ponder my strategy around the disposal of the extra car (the 1957) and the related parts. How far should I take the reassembly before throwing in the towel and hitting Kijijji and placing an ad? The big issue for me is making one drivable car out of the two and having enough money generated from the sale of the second car to finish the first one. My "spider sense" tells me to reassemble the powder coated chassis with all the good parts from both cars then sell off the remaining vehicle as a "basket case". This action must be taken soon as I really feel the need to make a definitive decision and get on with it?

Primer and Such

Current Work: I managed to get back into the garage late last week after returning from vacation. I straightened out the rear spare tire cover and primed it plus the hood and both doors. Total time spent about 8 hours. Yesterday I started doing the prep on the 1957 hood for priming-realizing I waited a little too long between sandblasting and priming so some surface rust formed. Easy to remedy at this stage..

Overall Strategy:

A friend indicated I am probably a better planner than do-er and he is probably right. This observation fits my Meyers-Briggs personality profile..INTJ-I am a big picture kind of guy...details often mess me up....Talking about the "big picture", nothing gets my creative juices flowing more than an early morning planning session and the creation of a critical path to follow.... The problem comes with actually committing time during the day to get the work done that has been planned. I think this is a common issue with people restoring vehicles and one that is causing me a fair amount of grief with respect to making progress... but at least I am aware of the problem..now I am trying to address it...

1957: Hopefully I am going to be able to get the 1957 tub sandblasted along with a couple of the fenders next week. I have a friend who works for a sandblasting firm who has offered to do the work. I really need to get the tub primed and an assessment of the work needed to be done completed. I am uncertain how I am going to proceed but for now are considering a partial reconstruction of the car and subsequent marketing if all goes well..

1959: I need to be heads down on the bodywork while the weather is still good. I want to have the car painted by mid September and if I am going to do this there needs to be a focused systematic approach. Much of the major body work has been completed-it is mainly paint prep that needs to be done...