Work on the Bolens 1250 Hood

Yesterday I decided to spend some time figuring out how to permanently attach the Bolens 1250 hood to the tractor body.  The hood is really rusty but could be cleaned up reasonably well, primed and painted.  However, the front part where the hinge used to be has entirely rotted off so we need to develop a new point of attachment for a hinge.  Here's two photos of the hood as it is:

I spent some time considering possible solutions and going out to my pile of scrap metal (in the dark, with a flashlight) to bring back pieces that might work.  After deliberating I decided that a piece of the old motorcar trailer frame would work just right.  It's a piece of aluminum C-channel.  So I cut a piece 21 inches wide and then cut off one of the sides of the "C", leaving this piece:

By then it was 10:30 pm or so so I had to call it a night.  But tonight I returned to the job and shaped the piece so it would fit inside the front of the hood.  Will have to support it with two pieces of scrap aluminum to reach the proper height, but I think it's going to work fine.  I will bolt it to the hood on one side and then run a piece of 1 inch wide conveyor belting along it so I can bolt it into the other side as well.  I had been planning to bend two "ears" to bolt to the side edges but found out that aluminum 1/4 inch thick breaks, rather than bending.  So on to plan B.  Here's a photo of the shaped support inside the rusty hood:

Of course the hood needs to be sandblasted, primed and painted before we get to that point but at least the conceptual work and the support itself are done.  I will need to attach an 11.75" continuous hinge to the surface at the top and then to the bolt holes on the tractor body.  That will allow the hood to be raised and lowered while attached to the body.  I also just bid dols 4.99 for a hood support assembly for a Bolens 1250 on ebay and won it so should be getting that in the next several days.  Hopefully that will be one of the last parts needed for this project.