As you can see in the attached pic, the center of my hood is bent down and rubs against the nose. Any ideas how to straiten it out? I've tried hitting the underside with a hammer, using a block of wood of course, but doesnt seem to help. Any ideas how to fix it myself, or how much a shop would charge? Oh, and there's also a small bend in the front driver's corner, on the side. But my biggest concern is the front center. Or should I just paint my perfect flat hood and throw that on? I'm thinking maybe I should, because the underside of the hood in the pic has some cracks and rust on the bottom in the front. But I really like the blisters.

The flat hood (old pic.) See, this one's a perfect fit:

I'ts hard to say by a pic, I would take it to a body shop and see if they could fix it or if they would recomend replaceing it. If they say they could fix it, compair prices. You will have to repaint the whole hood in either case (buy,or fix). I would personally find one in the J-yard, shouldn't be that expensive, especially if you have a pull-a-part style junk yard in your area. You really want to avoid any body filler on the hood, it will weaken flexing and the heat. If you have to do any filler use lead and melt into the hood, (get a resporator or something for this process). Use it as an excuse to get a cowl or ram air hood (LOL).

If I'm better off replacing it, I do have a stock flat hood, the one in the second pic. It just has to be painted.

Any ideas how I could fix the bend myself? Money's kinda tight right now.

That long of a bend would be hard to get perfect. if the bend starts relatively close to the edge, pull the hood off the car, and work the bend out with a dead-hit rubber hammer, a block or two of wood, one to help spread out the hits, the other to help absorb and roll the metal back into shape. But unfortantly I would say more than likely the pait will crack/flake off as you do this, so you will have to respray the hood, its hard to spot paint red. They probably make better tools to do this, I have done some body work, no expert to say the least.

how bad is the hood frame bent? does the hood shut correctly.

you may also be able to cut and place the inserts in the flat hood, I don't know for sure.

you should be able to move the hindges back enough to keep it from rubbing and possibly messing up the front bumper cover.

You may also want to see if you could trade that flat hood a junk yard for one you like better its worth a shot.

How did you bend the hood?

I don't think the frame of the hood is bent, just the metal at the front. It closes fine, just sometimes I have to give it a tug to open it. And I'm not the one that bent it, I got it like that. When I picked it up it was standing against a wall so I didn't notice it right away.