Hood alignment

filip00

I recently did a gallery gasket job and in order to do this, the shop removed the whole front, including the headlights. When they replaced the parts, the hood was misaligned. In order to align it back, they first tried to mess with the hood latches, but they only allow for a few mm of adjustment. The issue was that they didn't position the bumper carrier (the large piece that goes over the front and is bolted with large 4 bolts on each side) exactly as it was originally. After they replaced it perfectly as it was originally - everything else snapped perfectly in place, no adjustment necessary.

So what I can tell you is - you have some mm of adjustment on the hood latches, and you also have more adjustment if you remove the bumper as well as the bumper carrier. Both of these will impact on how the hood is closing and if it's nearing the fender or headlight.
In my case the hood was never removed, it was originally positioned and still is. If you had a crashed car, perhaps you should check the hood positioning as well. You basically have at least three positions you could play with: hood adjustment on the hinges, hood latches, bumper carrier.