Hi Martec. I'm 5 years in with mine working on it evenings and weekends here and there. It has been a steep learning curve but I am still enjoying the challenges.
I have welded steel for years but never aluminum. I tried oxy/fuel welding first and spent most of a winter practicing but never got to where I would trust my welds on the shroud - too high a percentage cracked during post-weld cooling and I never really got a handle on it so I bought a TIG machine. I spent another winter practicing and reading all I could about TIG welding and finally got to where I decided to go for it.
I'm not going to bash any suppliers but if you need to replace any panels, be prepared to examine them very carefully to see if they will really work. I bought several shroud pieces that, at first glance looked good but ended up not really useable. An example is the piece between the bonnet opening and the top of the grille - the overall shape was good and would have worked great, but the channel shape around the bonnet opening was 3/16" too deep and 1/4" too wide and could not be matched to the existing channel. I ended up searching out NOS body repair pieces over about 3 years. The NOS pieces I found fit perfectly with no odd issues.
Vette does make a good point about cracks - I haven't gotten mine together yet to see how many cracks it develops but I won't be surprised if some show up.
An irony is that I just finished my front shroud last spring and over the last 3 months I've seen 3 for sale within 100 miles for less than $1k - they all looked like they would need some minor repair but nothing at all like mine needed. If I add up the welder, the consumables, the repair pieces I bought, I'm way in the hole but I enjoy the journey and being able to say I did it.
If you do proceed, feel free to pm me. I have lots of pictures of mine step-by-step and the jig I made
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Dave