Does This Hood Alignment Look Normal?

[NY Yankee Pride]

I noticed today that my hood alignment seems to be off on the passenger side by the windshield but I'm not sure if it's just the way it's supposed to be. The first picture is the driver side where it seems to align just about perfectly with the fender. In the second picture of the passenger side you can see the hood goes farther back toward the windshield than the fender. Also the hood is up a little higher in that area a little bit over the fender.

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[DougS550]

I noticed today that my hood alignment seems to be off on the passenger side by the windshield but I'm not sure if it's just the way it's supposed to be. The first picture is the driver side where it seems to align just about perfectly with the fender. In the second picture of the passenger side you can see the hood goes farther back toward the windshield than the fender. Also the hood is up a little higher in that area a little bit over the fender.

Is this your stock hood or after market hood?

 

[NY Yankee Pride]

Is this your stock hood or after market hood?

This is a stock hood.

 

[DougS550]

This is a stock hood.

I would remove the hood stiker then loosen the 4 hood mount nuts leaving two a little bug but not to snug to prevent you from moving the hood around to see if you can get a better fit. Then slowly lift the hood just enough for you to tighten the nuts but not move the hood while tightening. Good luck

 

[NY Yankee Pride]

I would remove the hood stiker then loosen the 4 hood mount nuts leaving two a little bug but not to snug to prevent you from moving the hood around to see if you can get a better fit. Then slowly lift the hood just enough for you to tighten the nuts but not move the hood while tightening. Good luck

I'll definitely try what you suggested next weekend when I have a little time. Do you think this means the car was previously in an accident? I recently bought it used but I did pay for a pre purchase inspection at a local shop that does body work and mechanic work and they said it looked good. Now I'm wondering if they actually did a full inspection or just said "ah, it's busy today this looks good".

 

[WD Pro]

Do you think this means the car was previously in an accident?

No, not necessarily, that's fairly typical for a factory build

I would be more skeptical of a completely straight one - a good body shop will typically do a better job than the factory ...

WD

 

[IPOGT]

No, not necessarily, that's fairly typical for a factory build

I would be more skeptical of a completely straight one - a good body shop will typically do a better job than the factory ...

WD

Sadly, true. Apparently, the thumb is still a rule of measure in certain environments…

 

[DougS550]

I'll definitely try what you suggested next weekend when I have a little time. Do you think this means the car was previously in an accident? I recently bought it used but I did pay for a pre purchase inspection at a local shop that does body work and mechanic work and they said it looked good. Now I'm wondering if they actually did a full inspection or just said "ah, it's busy today this looks good".

Not nessasarily. The hood could have been taken off for other reasons and just not aligned correctly. But, a front end accident can tweak the front end to cause such an issue good luck.

 

[Coyotebawl]

Mine is like that too . I noticed it a while back when I was washing the car . It doesn't bug me bad enough though for me to mess with it. I'm sure if you look good enough at the car you will notice more issues as well .

 

[The Spider House]

I noticed today that my hood alignment seems to be off on the passenger side by the windshield but I'm not sure if it's just the way it's supposed to be. The first picture is the driver side where it seems to align just about perfectly with the fender. In the second picture of the passenger side you can see the hood goes farther back toward the windshield than the fender. Also the hood is up a little higher in that area a little bit over the fender.

Before removing the retaining bolts it may be worthwhile checking the bump height of the bonnet (hood) rubber mounts on your front panel. With mentioning slightly raised it may just be that the rubber stop on the passenger side needs turning to make slightly lower.
If that doesn't work, by all means follow the other suggestions but checking the bump stops could be a simpler and less intrusive way of solving the problem.

 

[NY Yankee Pride]

Mine is like that too . I noticed it a while back when I was washing the car . It doesn't bug me bad enough though for me to mess with it. I'm sure if you look good enough at the car you will notice more issues as well .

That definitely helps put my mind at ease a little. Thank you.

 

[John S]

I don't know what Flat Rock's acceptance criteria was(is) for panel gaps and alignments but my Mach 1 has similar inconsistent gaps and it's nowhere as good as any cheap Honda or Toyota. My hood stripe is even shifted 1/4" from the center of the hood, not noticeable unless you look for it and not worth leaving my car in the hands of a dealer to "fix" it.

 

[NY Yankee Pride]

Bringing this thread back with some new information. I stored the car for the winter and just got it out of storage a little over a week ago. I lifted the hood this weekend and noticed that there was a pop rod even though the car had hood struts.

It was then that I realized that the hood struts must have been added by the previous owner and it appears they did a really shoddy job of installing them. The hood doesn't even go up high enough now to use the pop rod. So I did some internet searching and noticed that they didn't even install the aftermarket hood struts correctly. You can see they used a mounting point of the top fender bolt instead of the correct mounting holes. I'm guessing they also messed up the hood alignment when they loosened the bolts that attach the hood to the hinges.

I'm just going to have the hood struts completely removed and the get the hood correctly aligned. I found a local body shop who said they can take care of it.

 

[Gen 6 Mach1]

Unfortunately that is where the movement came from ,I'm not an expert body Tech , but when you put a wrench on a nut in this case the hood is up weight pulling down , most likely moved the hood . You are only off less than .100 , .060/ .070 thousand ( 1/16 ) . Loosen very slightly the 2 nuts hold the hood from moving farther down , move ever so slightly upward snug the nuts close the hood check , repete if nessassery. Baby steps slow , protect the entire with soft microfiber towels, remove when checking fitment.

 

[Cobra Jet]

I noticed today that my hood alignment seems to be off on the passenger side by the windshield but I'm not sure if it's just the way it's supposed to be. The first picture is the driver side where it seems to align just about perfectly with the fender. In the second picture of the passenger side you can see the hood goes farther back toward the windshield than the fender. Also the hood is up a little higher in that area a little bit over the fender.

This post I had put up from a while back outlines the S550 body panel spacing IF one wants to delve into trying to get the panels in better order.

Starting here, there are images and exact measures for all body panel gaps. There are also (2) pdfs that outline how to align the most common areas.
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...with-a-happy-ending.19261/page-3#post-2510104

Even though the images and info is referencing 2015-2017, the same would apply to the 2018-2023’s.

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