Ordered New Hood

[CJHenderson]

My hood could not be fully straightened out, had to many dips in the surface and the hinges could not be adjusted enough to make the alignment work. Ordered a new hood from MBUSA Classic section. Got it pretty reasonable deal. The car had been in a collision and it appears that the body shop had tried to go the cheap way and straighten out an aluminum hood, which is a waste of time.  One thing I'm really thinking that the story of Alice in Wonderland was written by a Mercedes owner. I went down that rabbit hole and came face to face with the Mad Hatter, it was me.

[Shvegel]

I know that feeling.  I knew it was a sickness when I spent $500 on a used distributor because the last digit of the part number which faces the block and is unreadable was a 1 and it needed to be a 2.

[CJHenderson]

Can the new hood be trim to fit the car? The new hood is a tad too large for the engine compartment

[stickandrudderman]

They are too large by design because no two cars are alike.
It's up to the installer to file the hood down so as to achieve the correct gaps.

[Benz Dr.]

My body man split the hood apart, English wheeled out the problem areas, panel bonded it back together, and it came back as good as new. So, it can be done in some cases.

[CJHenderson]

Thanks for the replies. The hood was damaged in an crash when the impact was to the right side. The body shop had the hood but they apparently over filed the nose of the hood that left a very noticeable dip in the leading edge to the point there was no hope of going any further. As for the new hood to make it fit proper I'm to the point of having to order the grill body panel to correct another error that was made when fitting the new right fender to the car. At this rate I might have a complete body replacement. At this rate hope to win the lottery.