Ah! OK, the hood sides have a 1/8 x 1 flat stock strip spot-welded along the top edge that the hood top overlaps and latches onto. That keeps the bottom edges of the top panels straight. At the top center, where the piano hinge is attached, there is a 1/8 x 3/4 flat stock reinforcement strip on each hood half. Since I did that, though, I have been considering replacing those with some small angle iron for extra stiffness. One day when I was working on something else, I laid my angle grinder on the hood and it sagged in the center. I realized, all I need is for some ham-handed fool to lean on that hood a little too hard and it will be permanently deformed...

On another note, I had a bit of good fortune on Saturday. I picked up another S-10 engine and 5-speed trans for $100. This one supposedly has less than 500 miles on it since a complete rebuild! It's nice & clean and you can see some of the edges of the new gaskets & permatex oozed out in a few places, so it's definitely been apart. It's supposed to have new pistons in a fresh bore job, etc.

As the story goes, this guy bought an S-10 that had a mint body, but high mileage driveline with a smoking engine. He had the engine rebuilt, but was disappointed with the lack of horsepower, so after about 500 miles he pulled the engine back out and stuffed in a 350. This 4-banger sat in the corner of his shop for the last year or so until a mutual friend got us together...