Columbia hood cracking near hinges. Any good fixes?

My hood looked like it started to separate on both sides near the hinges/headlights. So a few months back, I took it off, sanded the area down, poured some resin in the openings, clamped it, and did a wet fiberglass layup repair on the area. It worked great and hasn't budged there since. But now it cracked in a completely different spot. This time on the outside under the left headlight. This will be harder to repair but not impossible.

So I just wanted to see what others do. Do you guys just keep repairing it or has anyone come up with a more permanent solution? I'm almost temped to cut out metal plates, one long one across the outside, and two or 3 inside and just run bolts through it. I think I can still make it look decent with some smooth chrome or painted bolt heads or something like that. Any other ideas?

 

I'll post pics when I can. I haven't replaced it yet but I might have to soon. It cracked again. Not where I repaired it, but next to it. That tells me my repair was too stiff so it just broke in another place. I'm going to try and repair this crack and then save up for a new hood.

 

My repairs are still fine, the hood is not cracking in a different spot NEXT to my repairs. It's like the repairs are stronger than the hood itself at this point.

 

Here are the pictures from the first time I fixed it. As you can see, it now cracked right at the edge of my repair. Originally both hinge mounts were glued with some sort of adhesive that separated from the fiberglass. Luckily my dad did auto body for 20 years and had some boat repair experience so he helped me out with a quick fix to get the truck on the road. It wasn't pretty but it worked.






The new crack doesn't look too bad but it's actually putting a lot of stress on a thin part of the hood.

 

I just took the hood off again and I'm having my dad fix it. He sanded down the original repair a bit to add more layers and cover a larger area. I'm not going to have him fix the outside just yet because freight is paying really well right now but structurally it's much better and that will be next.




Once I get a slow week, I'll have him grind away on the outside and layer a repair about 12" in each direction. I'll update with more pics as he gets further along.