First off thanks for getting the site up and going again!
I've been working on my hood and I'm ~80% done. I ended up making a frame out of 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/16 aluminum angle. I just didn't feel confident in free bending the hood. Figured the frame would make it easier and long term a more robust piece. Hood itself is .040 5052 sheet. Could have more easily used .030" thick with hindsight. Right now only thing I would have done differently is use wider channel for the bottom rail. When I was forming the hood I had to add some 1" steel tubing to keep everything in shape.
The frame was bent up using a metal shrinker from harbor freight. The set also comes with an expander. The shrinker works great, the expander not so much. I tried the expander a few times when I over bent the angle and half the time is would crack and had to start over from scratch. Here is fitting of the rear frame using guide strings-
Once I had all the pieces done I used an aluminum spool gun on my mig. Wasn't super happy with the results. It just isn't meant for such thin material. Only saving grace is the welds are really just there to hold the frame together until the skin is on.
Next up I attached the skin to the frame with clecos. Lots and lots of lots clecos. I also had use something like 20 various clamps at once during the process.
Then take it all apart, deburr everything and attach the skin using 3m panel bond and rivets. The rivets are only there for the panel bond to harden up. I'm going to drill them out and fill the holes.
First fit up
Trimmed back to 90% of final fit-
I'm going to be using aerocatch latches. Two on each side to hold it down.