As some of you may know, I recently swapped a 350 into my car. When I put the hood back on it wouldn't close, no matter how it was adjusted. The driver's side fender is rotated away from the A-pillar, but inwards where it connects to the bumper. What would be the best way to get the fender lined up correctly? Plan Z is to hit it with a hammer. I have NO experience in body work so any and all advice is appreciated.

Pics:
The pass. side fender.

Driver side fender, the one that isn't fitting properly at the back, which I believe is cause the front to rotate inwards.

Driver side

Driver side

Pass. side fits perfect.

I guess my main question is, how and where the bolts are that hold that sucker on?

 

Looks to me like moving the hood latch support over to the drivers side a little would help. Hood is against passengers side fender. Then you could loosen the drivers side fender bolts and move the rear of the fender in a touch. The pics kind of indicate the front end is over to the passenger side some but it may adjust out. Hard to tell from pics but it also looks like the bottom of the passenger side fender may need to be straightened from improper jacking damage. That may be part of the issue with the gaps between the windshield post also.

 

I already messed with the hood latches, that's how I got it to close at all lol. It's catching on the front of the driver side fender, the pass side is perfectly flush.

Are the fender bolts accessable through the hood or the doors?

 

i would unloosen the fender and move it. the bolts are along the top. they usually take a 10mm socket. youll need to unloosen the hood hinge bolts too, most likely to move the fender. open your hood, youll see them on top of the fender.

 

The problem I ran into with that is the little metal brackets that the screws go into wouldn't move to where I needed them to be, but I'll give it another shot. thanks.

 

You should be able to slide the hood over to the drivers side by loosening the rear bolts that bolt the hood the the hinge and once you get that done you can fine tune where the hood will sit when its closed by using a small hammer and hitting the latch catch on the hood itself to either direction so that it goes into the hood latch straight.

 

passenger side looks too tight to me, but the driver's side fender is off compared to the a pillar. May have to adjust the fender first, but to adjust the hood, believe it or not, have seen this a few times, and it seems easy, yet ghetto, but open hood, stand on passenger side, put hands on side of hood where hinge attaches and progressively push harder towards the driver's side till it lines up better -- seen body guys do this before and have had success with a few cars at the shop doing this.... just don't slam the hood shut to see if it's straight, can mess up fenders if it's not. May have to loosen hinge to hood bolts to adjust afterwards. Go slow, it's better to do it 20 times and get it right than try to do it in one or 2 tries and smack a fender.

 

Now that I think about it, the passenger side fender sticks out further than the door, while the driver side doesn't, maybe I need to pull the pass. side out and the driver's side will line up. I'll see if I can move the pass. side out some, but I swear it's catching on the driver's side fender.