How would you guys go about fixing this, bothers me a lot and I feel like it’d fly up at any moment and smack the windscreen. She’s in rough shape cosmetically but luckily it is all surface rust, it was stored in a dry Indiana warehouse for years.

I would check to make sure there is nothing keeping that passenger side from coming down first. Hinges, springs, crap in the track, etc. Once that has been eliminated, I would grab a block of wood and try persuading that hood back down by applying pressure. That hood may have been twisted at some point and needs to be helped to return to its original shape. BTW, are you sure the chassis/tub is otherwise straight an in alignment? Go slowly and be careful.

Did they have an elephant ? Looks to me like one sat on the right front fender..
Show the inside on trunk

Pull the front bumper and see if anything lines up.

Being that there aren't any creases in the hood, I'd recommend not trying to encourage it to fit. As others have suggested, it's possible that the problem isn't with the hood but actually with the fender, etc. You should absolutely pull the bumper to see how it all looks. Also pull the spare tire and look for any crinkles in the bodywork around the headlight boxes. There's something else going on as there's no possible way the hood could be this misaligned without there being a larger, underlying issue.

with all of the above. I spent a lot of time gently massaging my hood to correct a 1/4" lift on a hood I knew for sure was bent. That looks like something else might be going on. While you are in the trunk, also inspect the structural fame member of the hood. They can give a lot of clues about damage to the hood itself that needs correcting.

I’ve got a few photos of the passenger side here, it looks straight to my eyes. I can’t get photos of the underside of the hood right at this moment but I’ll update with them soon.

Poorly fitting hood or not, that's a cool looking car. Love the VW style steels.

Edit: WELCOME to the World!

Warp the hood, just bend gently. I'd take it off and release the springs on the brackets so you can lay it down check your progress. Might be better with a helper so you can work it from the edges. Making the hood fit a twisted body is ok if that will make you happy

Last pic looks like it got closed on something, causing weird arc

How would I measure to make sure it’s not frame related? I’d be absolutely crushed if that was the case, I have no way of fixing something major like that. I can take more pictures when I get to the shop but the passenger side is super straight and doesn’t show any evidence of frame damage like that. I wouldn’t even know what could cause a car to be bent in that way, I think the wheel arches would definitely show it and the suspension would bust out of the housing. I’m still definitely learning and new to 914-land

Thank you sir, I like them too! Hope to get them with a coat of primer and gloss black soon:)

To my eye it looks like the fit starts to go wrong right about where the crack/tear/whatever is going on with the bumper top is located. Check if the lid seal channel has been pushed back and up so that the lid can not close enough.

To me, it looks like lots of misfit points. The right rear corner of the hood sits high, and perhaps could be adjusted with the hinge mount. The right headlight also looks low. And the entire front of the hood is also high.

Do you need our help getting the front trunk open? Is the pull handle not working?

Little tough love my friend but your car has bigger issues then your hood. But hey it’s nothing that time, money and your own sweat can’t fix. I personally would start by striping it down and look for bigger problems. Make a list of what your going to need and post up some WTB in the classified section.

Good luck

The pull handle works okay, just requires a *lot* of pull getting the mechanism to pop, which is suspect is due to age. I’ll head to my garage Monday and settle this, really hoping it’s not frame bent, just sick thinking about it. This was supposed to be my first college project car, a bent frame is way beyond my experience right now.

my 2 cents.
Something whacked that front right area of the bumper.
At least on my screen it appears that the bumper is pushed in.
The rubber is notched and destroyed just above the pressed in area of bumper.
That impact reached the hood and buckled it. The rain channels may be misaligned as well. It looks like something impacted it or the 914 kissed something.
Good luck, all can be fixed. How much time and $ is up to you.
Again welcome!

You don't know what it is yet, so I wouldn't panic just yet. You just need to figure out what is going on so when you start moving metal around, you are moving the right stuff. My first college car was a 914 in way worse shape than whatever yours has going on.

Here's a photo of the interior of the front trunk, to my eyes I didn't see anything misaligned or out of shape under here. I'll be able to get photos of a wider angle and get the bumper off soon.

You have big pile of dirt and debris sit on the passenger wheel well. I would start there and then look for anything else that is binding or blocking the lid. I would lube the latch and hinge points as well. If the latch it hard to release you might want to clean and lube that before the cable breaks on you. I had to replace the sleeve to get mine to get it to work smoothly. Check that someone didn't adjust the stop all the way up on that side.

If it were mine, I'd spend today pulling the front bumper off and clean all the dirt and crud out of the gasket channels, pull everything out of the frunk including spare tire cover and the spare tire. Get down to the bare bones so you can really see what is going on. Relatively small deformations can cause large fitment issues. If Dion is right, you might be able to find what's going on with the front bumper off and frunk cleaned out. It might be easier to fix than you think. Only way to know is to strip everything down for a good inspection. Also check out the '914 Info' link in the top right of this page. You will find dimension diagrams that will be your friend trying to figure this out.

Good luck!

@machichol; Did you find the issue with your hood misalignment?

My money is the car hit something at the point of contact at the front bumper. A "new" hood was fitted and the real damage is still there. You my get lucky and you can just replace the hinge, but for sure the hinge was damaged.

You can see it looks like it was heated to bend back into shape. or a support added

funny I saw this thread as I was adjusting mine today - seems to close fine but the little bit to latch it wants to bend the nose down. Looked for any obstruction but found none, frustrating.