Car Fax's thread continued!

[lincolnmatthews]

Sorry, I'll try to keep this one short!
So question #1 is: I have to "slam" the hood down when shutting it. I've adjusted the hood bumpers up to raise it to match the fender tops.
Is this normal? I've never shut the hood on one of these cars before.
I'm apprehensive about having the car re-painted again from the doors forward, probably no local body shop that can actually match the paint any better
#2 if the fender & hood have been replaced I assume there are cheap Chinese knock offs instead of OEM's that don't fit right?.
I screwed up & paid top $ for the car, but I think I will keep it & enjoy it and live with it the best I can.
I am going to have a body shop look at it but can only imagine big bucks to correct everything. Only car guys with good eye would notice the mis match.
What would you guys do? Fix it more $$$, drive it or dump it at a big loss?
Thanks for your opinions, sorry I can't post any pics.

 

[86GT351]

If you need a Car Fax I can assist. 15.00

 

[AHaze]

I have to give my hood a pretty good slam and I'm confident all the parts are original paint other than some touch ups. My car is an early production '05 though so I assumed it was just something Ford hadn't quite perfected yet.
Partial repaints are tricky. Realistically any panel that gets painted needs to be blended into the adjacent panels which then need to be completely re-cleared. Up to you if the expense is worth it.
I believe OEM parts have a Ford oval stamped into them but not 100% sure on that. Poor fit can mean a bad part or just that it was installed poorly. An experienced autobody tech could likely get a better fit with a cheap fender than I could with an OEM part.

 

[Racer47]

Put a washer under each hood latch bolt so it will latch with less force.

 

[K9GSD]

Yeah I have to slam mine pretty hard or it will leave that gap open. Nothing changed or accidents in the front. 2007

 

[Ret]

You already said you really enjoyed the ride home. My Mustang is a 2012 and I have had three others. All four, you had/have to slam the hood down hard. My 12 needs to have the hood stoppers adjusted on the driver's side, which I plan to have done tomorrow,

Enjoy the car. As to my hood off a 16th of an inch no one has ever noticed except me.

 

[lincolnmatthews]

Thank you all for the replies! I have spent hours re-aligning the fenders,hood and re-adjust the hood latch mechanism. I had to "hog" out the mounting holes on these Taiwan fenders, with new m6 shoulder bolts they cover the larger holes. Put in the missing hood bumpers, this solved a lot of flutter.
Now I can push the hood closed with two hands, so much better up to my standards finally! I will drive it and enjoy it!