Here's the situation: A while back I got into a minor accident where the passenger side of the front bumper and fender where crunched in. It pushed my hood back towards the driver's side corner closest to the windshield. I had to get a new headlight and I'm trying to fit the hood so that it will shut properly. It hits the light when it is up. I even tried new hinges for the hood and that hasn't helped. I tried loosening all four bolts holding the hood on the hinges and adjusting it in any way possible to clear the light. I also tried losening all the bolts holding the light on and moving it as far as possible. Has anyone else run into a similar situation? What did do to get it to fit? Other suggestions?

 

tough to fix over the internet. on the fc i start by aligning the fenders, cause there are guide holes for that. then you can fit the hood to the fenders, and then the headlights to the hood.

 

I would say that there is some minor frame damage from the hit causing your headlight to be pushed back.
I would try to find the specs and take measurements of the engine bay.
also how does the hedlight fit against the bumper?

 

Take it to a shop, or swap all of your stuff over to a new car if you cant get it in the end..

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure that aligning the fenders first is going to do me much good because I've moved the hood to it's greatest possible extent (losened 4 bolts holding hood to hinges and 4 bolts holding hinges to car) to try to get it to fit between the lights.

I'm starting to suspect the frame may indeed be bent...Any ideas on where I could find the specs or even what term I should use when searching? Is it possible to do a DIY frame job if the problem is minor?

I honestly cannot say how the light fits against the bumper when down, I haven't tried it down yet. Would it be a bad idea to make the holes on the headlight where it attaches to the body larger so that I can move it over even further?

 

All the body specs are in the FSM.

Sounds like some minor support damage in the front end. You may need to pull the bumper and fenders to find the actual damage. If it damaged your headlight that badly, the front sub-bumper and shock may also be bent.

 

It is possible to make the holes larger but, I would check the headlight to bumper situation before doing that, and yes it could be possible to pull the frame damage yourself I'll give you details after you have determined that to be the problem.

 

I'm pretty sure the frame has been moved slightly. SOIA, if you could explain that procedure I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

If the 'frame', unibody is bent, it will most likely need to spend time on a frame machine. Generally not a DIY project.