Repair hood braces

[ttyR2]

The hood sheetmetal bracing on my truck has come loose from the hood skin itself. What would be the best way to re-fasten it? I thought about drilling it and doing a series of plug welds. It'd mess up the paint on the hood but it's due for painting anyway. My only concern would be if the metal cracked from vibration around the welds.

The other option is some sort of adhesive but I'm not sure how easy it would be to clean the old stuff off first, or what kind of adhesive would hold up to the heat and vibration under the hood.

[flyboy2610]

Can you somehow clamp the two together and then mig weld around the perimeter of the bracing?

[ttyR2]

I could but I think weld beads like that would just warp the snot out of the metal, whereas small plug welds would be a lot easier to control.

[greenbank]

The interior of Jaguar E-Type hoods are held together with adhesive. Those folks use Sikaflex...not sure which particular #. It gets HOT under the hood of any Jag and this stuff works well.

As with any adhesive, prep is what's key, I'd think no oil, rust, whatever could be present.