1st I must apologize, I'm not one for taking pictures. Mind you this is not without regret, what I wouldn't give for pictures of some of my past cars and projects.
Having said that, taking hoods apart. I do this quite often to replace the sealer between the halfs (The Sandwich).
(1) Registers, someone mentioned marking with a pen, I go a bit further. I drill holes (3/16") for "Clecos" usually a half to two thirds as many as there is spotwelds ( don't drill any where there is a spot weld just near them).
(If you have taken the hood apart already just put the pieces back together line up the drilled spotwelds clamp with vice grips and drill holes for clecos).
(2) clean off the paint where the welds are all the way to clean metal (rotory wire brush works well) Mark each with a sharpy as you go so you don't have to look for them when you start cutting them. Specially if your an old fart like me and you can't see as well as I once could.
(3) Drill ALL the spotwelds (with a spotweld cutter not a drill)
(4) Clean, Repair, Etc. ( Max Wedge, On your hood I'd put 16 gauge behind the bad bits mig it in where the metal is missing grind it smooth replicate the original holes with a burr, file whatever and put the speed nuts back where they were if the nuts are bad just clean the old one off and tack weld the right size in it's place. I like to use square nuts myself.
(5) Put the sandwich back together. I usually prime the parts that will be hidden with a good selfetch primer. put a generous amount of sealer pretty much the way the factory did. I use 3m dripcheck. But places like Eastwood sell chalk gun tubes of seam sealer that works well.
Clamp the entire hood back together with Clecos you will need 20 to 40 for a hood.
(6) Welding... Spot welders weld pieces together with minimal heat beyond the contact point of the welder. Best way to weld it back together if you have one (I don't) is a spot welder. I mig the original spot welds by filling the holes just don't weld one next to the other do one here and one there until they're all done. Take your time the idea is not to generate a lot of heat.
All you need to do is weld the same amount of metal together as the spot weld we're talking about a spot that's usually no more then a 1/4 of an inch of actual welded surface. That's all each weld needs to be.
If you have ever tried to separate a spot weld with a chisel you'll destroy the metal around the weld before you ever pull it apart. So don't over weld you don't need to. Just tack it back together where the spot welds were.
If you are putting the inner from one and the outer from another you have to match the two pieces clamp, drill, Cleco, Etc. Then weld it like the factory did. The spot welds won't line up but you can still mig weld the hole to the other layer.
Now if your working on something newer with 24 gauge metal find another at pick a part buy a repo from china .
But if your talken about a 69 Dart power hump hood or the like that's not an option (at least for me $600 for a repo made in who knows where and I've seen used for more and you still have to clean paint reseal etc) Just repair it. Me being 55 years old I don't know any better.
If you end up scratchin your head or get backed into a corner let me know and I'll try to help.
PS I usually takes me an hour or two to do a hood.
