I bet you could get Pintsize interested... she sold me her Z1 set because the same concerns, I believe.
The driver side bowed bad when I first test closed the hood after installing the Z1 hood struts. I adjusted how I installed the washer (below vs above the plastic), and trimmed some plastic, and it sat was much more flush. The passenger side was absolutely flawless fitment first try. The driver side was perplexing to say the least. I got it to where you can feel the difference if you run your finger down the gap on each side of the hood, but its difficult to tell by just looking unless you look real closely at both sides. It's acceptable to me as it's a DD. The car doesn't need to be mint for me to enjoy it
I can fully understand your hesitation to encounter anything difficult when working on the car yourself. I was the same way until I bought and installed intakes. I gradually accumulated the necessary tools, did my first oil change (3rd overall on the car) and I was hooked
Obviously, as my DD, I can't do too much to it at a time, but I enjoy taking the car apart, even if just to look and do some R&D before I consider a new mod. New adventures can still be nerve-wracking, but it's just so much damn fun
