Finally took a break from working on my powdercoating oven to work on the car a bit. The hood hinge bolts into the aprons with some crappy crimped nuts from the factory. I had a broken off bolt in one hole and the nut was ripped out on another hole. There were also several holes that needed to be filled. I took the leap and just started drilling out spot welds and replaced the whole panel. The only downside is the new panel didn't have the holes for the fender bolts nor did it have the VIN number so I cut that section out of the old panel and welded it into the new one. I still have a few plug welds to do at the bottom once the mock up engine is out of the way and some grinding before a skim coat of mud and it will be like new. Also hope to get the shock tower delete panels welded in soon too.
On another note I stumbled upon a deal on a 99 LS-1 Camaro T-56 trans. It was supposedly warrantied out in 2000 for "3rd gear takes too much effort to engage". It looks like new and was only $650 with a new hyd slave and master cylinders included. Now I can clean up and sell the LT1 T-56 that I have been using for mock up to cover most of that cost.