Hey People,

Im kind of desperate for some advice here because I need this fixed asap im not 16 or anything and dont care about my parents finding out but I would rather they didn't my dad is hardcore european and I wouldn't hear the end of it! =D Im sure some can related so... heres the prob.

I was driving back from a long trip this weekend and someone decided that it was cool to slam their breaks at 120km/hr in the left lane. I was passing someone and thought she was just slowing down. Anyways bad driving habbits aside, I got into a little fender bender, her car was FINE 100% and her trailer hitch bent my hood in just a little curled at the front, and my left headlight and grill aren't flush with the top of the bumper trim. Now the problem is that the hood wont close all the way. the sides have like a .75cm gap vertically at the front.

So i tried to bend it back into shape, ill bondo it when i can get it to close, but still nothing. Im not sure if its the latch or something but its clicks and even clicks twice completely shut. But when i close it (as much as it will go) and then pull the lever in the car I no longer hear that 'CLUNK'.

Another interesting point is that when i press on the one side that doesn't close fully the other side pulls up and vise versa, almost as if though around the center, near the grill part there is something that is keeping it from coming all the way down.

Can you guys steer me in the right direction? Ill post some pictures and maybe a short video too to help give you a better picture...

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

 

Heres some pics! They are quite high quality so you guys can see it better. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks again for any help you can share.
Its honestly no where near as bad as you think. I barelllly nicked the the SUV. I think i got away realllllll lucky for what it actually sounds like. Ill bondo the front plier'ed part.
Does anyone know the inner workings of the latch pretty well? While taking pictures I noticed something kinda out of shape could this be the reason its not locking in?
www.jayandtonyservices.com/MyPictures/car1.JPG (Showing Gap/Hood Condition)
www.jayandtonyservices.com/MyPictures/car2.JPG (Headlight/Grill Top)
www.jayandtonyservices.com/MyPictures/car3.JPG (Latch)
www.jayandtonyservices.com/MyPictures/car4.JPG (Grill/Bumper)

 

Try to bend the latch back some, that's one reason its not locking in like its supposed to be. Also try to realign the hood on the hinges, looks like the hinges may be tweaked a little bit.
Don't go crazy on bending the latch tho last thing ya want is to completely break it off,
Do note tho is prolly gonna take some force to get it bent back out.

 

We'll thanks to you I got the hood to completely close and the latch is popping the hood enough to get your hands under it. My next question is how would you go about fixing the dent in the front? should I just bondo it and fill in the gap or should I actually bump it out. Although I would need some advice on getting the at the place because the inside it covered by the inner hood metal 'mesh' if you know what i mean.

Any help with that? Im thinking I could just bondo it all up and spray over the area blend it in and call it a day. Again my dad still hasn't noticed but im running out of time.

 

Well the last thing as an auto body guy i would ever tell you is to just bondo over it... but its not sounding like you have the time to care about right and wrong way to do it. so quick easy fix, bondo it.

Correctly you would pop dents with stud welder and slide hammer then finish it up with a hammer and dolly, very thin coat of bondo, sand rest of hood down paint it clear it wet sand it buff it. But like I said dosen't sound like ya got time for all that.