Is it me, or does this hood gap look off?

[anthemavm]

I looked at this car that is local with 450 miles, but something seems off on the nose of the car with the gaps between the nose and hood?



Thanks

[NickyC]

I’ve heard varying opinions on fitment of the OEM carbon fiber hood for our cars. Unlike the standard hoods which should have no gaps, some say the CF hoods don’t always line up perfectly. I’ve been struggling with the hood on my CS ever since the dealership replaced my headlights under warranty back in June. I swear there is a gap there now where there wasn’t before, but the tech at the dealership is telling me it’s just due to the composition of the hood.

To complicate matters, I look back at pictures of my car prior to the headlight install and incredibly I do see gaps which my mind never registered before. I also trust this tech 100% as he’s done fantastic work on my cars for years and I have no reason to doubt him. I don’t know what to think at this point honestly, I think it’s just something I need to live with. I may try taking it to a professional body shop to get a final opinion to see if they can make everything more flush.

Here are a couple pics of my hood/bumper after the headlight install. The gap for me is most noticeable on the driver’s side in the front on shots. There are no recorded accidents on my car either.

[M3SQRD]

That looks like the typical misalignment of the oem non-cf and cf hoods. You should be able to improve the fitment with standard hood adjustments.

[SYT_Shadow]

We use spacers to get the front hood to look good. Basically by raising the top of the bumper

[RugbyBro]

It's pretty common with these cars, especially with the GTS hood. Pic 1 is before, pic 2 is after some adjustment

[anthemavm]

I went back and looked at it, and pictures of it make it look worse.

What was really disappointing is someone lifted the windshield wiper and took a part of the paint out on the lip, and dragged something across the hood and put scratches down to the primer.

Dealer said they have so many people calling on it. Not interested in comps on CarGurus. Let see how they feel at month end.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by RugbyBro

It's pretty common with these cars, especially with the GTS hood. Pic 1 is before, pic 2 is after some adjustment

Looks perfect now, nice work! Would you have any tips on what to adjust to get the fitment correct? I see the little stoppers which are attached to the hood and you can twist them, but it never seems to get the hood close enough to the front fascia no matter how much I twist it. Is there another adjustment point I'm missing? Thanks!

[RugbyBro]

Originally Posted by NickyC

Looks perfect now, nice work! Would you have any tips on what to adjust to get the fitment correct? I see the little stoppers which are attached to the hood and you can twist them, but it never seems to get the hood close enough to the front fascia no matter how much I twist it. Is there another adjustment point I'm missing? Thanks!

So solution was a combination of a couple things. First is to identify what causes this issue. Why does the bumper droop like that with GTS hooded cars (and even regular hooded cars sometimes):

1. Headlight sag - I find that over time, the inner top headlight bracket starts to sag a little bit. That’s a problem because the top of the headlight is the final attachment point for the bumper, which ends up pulling the ends down a bit. This is VERY common on cars that have had the headlights taken out for any reason, GTS hood or not. The solution here is to loosen all the headlight bolts and reposition the headlights to eliminate as much sag as possible.

2. GTS Hood fitment - I find that the CRFP GTS hoods are very straight and the front bumper has a slight curve. Now either the hood will need to be forced into a curve or the bumper needs to sit more straight - only one of those is feasible whcih is straightening out the bumper. The way I’ve done this is to buy a whole bunch of washers and shim them under the outer few bumper attachment points (where the bumper screws to the top of the front end) to raise the outer edges and straighten that bumper hood line out.

So to fix it I did the following:

1. Adjust the hood spacers and bumper spacers that the center of the hood is flush with the bumper.

2. Loosen the headlight mounting bolts, repositioned the headlights with the bumper attached so I can see where the edges of the bumper hood line are, hold it in place, and tighten down the bolts so the headlight is locked in place.

3. Shimmed the outer bumper/hood attachment points to raise the edges and additional amount to meet the hood line.

For yours, you can very likely just get away with doing #3 and shimming the bumper. You can pickup a whole baggie of washers from any Ace and use them to raise the outer edges of your bumper.

Here’s my post relating to #3 for illustrative purposes: https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...&postcount=148

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by RugbyBro

So solution was a combination of a couple things. First is to identify what causes this issue. Why does the bumper droop like that with GTS hooded cars (and even regular hooded cars sometimes):

1. Headlight sag - I find that over time, the inner top headlight bracket starts to sag a little bit. That’s a problem because the top of the headlight is the final attachment point for the bumper, which ends up pulling the ends down a bit. This is VERY common on cars that have had the headlights taken out for any reason, GTS hood or not. The solution here is to loosen all the headlight bolts and reposition the headlights to eliminate as much sag as possible.

2. GTS Hood fitment - I find that the CRFP GTS hoods are very straight and the front bumper has a slight curve. Now either the hood will need to be forced into a curve or the bumper needs to sit more straight - only one of those is feasible whcih is straightening out the bumper. The way I’ve done this is to buy a whole bunch of washers and shim them under the outer few bumper attachment points (where the bumper screws to the top of the front end) to raise the outer edges and straighten that bumper hood line out.

So to fix it I did the following:

1. Adjust the hood spacers and bumper spacers that the center of the hood is flush with the bumper.

2. Loosen the headlight mounting bolts, repositioned the headlights with the bumper attached so I can see where the edges of the bumper hood line are, hold it in place, and tighten down the bolts so the headlight is locked in place.

3. Shimmed the outer bumper/hood attachment points to raise the edges and additional amount to meet the hood line.

For yours, you can very likely just get away with doing #3 and shimming the bumper. You can pickup a whole baggie of washers from any Ace and use them to raise the outer edges of your bumper.

Here’s my post relating to #3 for illustrative purposes: https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...&postcount=148

Fantastic, thank you so much RubyBro! I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that down, and I will certainly give it a try this weekend. Thanks a ton again kind sir!

[jadenokafor]

This color is deadly

[HELROTM3]

It looks off to me. Mine does not have that "gap." It is flush with no gap.

[thegamemodo9]

Originally Posted by anthemavm

I went back and looked at it, and pictures of it make it look worse.

What was really disappointing is someone lifted the windshield wiper and took a part of the paint out on the lip, and dragged something across the hood and put scratches down to the primer.

Dealer said they have so many people calling on it. Not interested in comps on CarGurus. Let see how they feel at month end.

I paid basically exactly this for mine and it had 411 miles. However, I made sure about the knuckles and water injection unit repairs before the agreement. I don't think it's a bad price, but would definitely ask about those two repairs first.

[NSX2M4]

Looks to me like the bumper and/or headlights have been removed at some point. These cars did not leave the factory like this and if they did, nobody would accept it.
It just needs to be aligned and it takes a LOT of time and adjustment.

[IB M]

Hood gap on car currently for sale in PA

Looks pretty good - yes?

WBS4S9C57GK578871

[W///]

Originally Posted by IB M

Hood gap on car currently for sale in PA

Looks pretty good - yes?

WBS4S9C57GK578871

I think this one looks fine. The condition of the lip on the other hand

[NickyC]

RugbyBro Hey there, used your washer trick to some improvement. Need to massage a bit more to get 100% there but good enough for now. Definitely less noticeable gap now. I’m sure our friends who are a bit more sensitive to such things will find it unacceptable, but luckily I’m ok with it.

[RugbyBro]

Originally Posted by NickyC

RugbyBro Hey there, used your washer trick to some improvement. Need to massage a bit more to get 100% there but good enough for now. Definitely less noticeable gap now. I’m sure our friends who are a bit more sensitive to such things will find it unacceptable, but luckily I’m ok with it.

WOW that looks fantastic!! Good stuff, it's better than mine right now (I need another round of repositioning - my passenger headlight was previously replaced under warranty due to a failed module).

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by RugbyBro

WOW that looks fantastic!! Good stuff, it's better than mine right now (I need another round of repositioning - my passenger headlight was previously replaced under warranty due to a failed module).

Thanks a ton, I don’t think it’s better than your beauty but I sure appreciate it!

I just noticed I appeared to have pulled out the passengers side grill a bit at the top left corner. Good grief it never ends, I’ll get it back into place in a bit.

Thanks again for your help, easy fix!!