Woody

The body shop will probably put a block at the front of the hood to hold it up, then 'lean' on the high spot to put it back in place. It may not be for the faint of heart to watch, let alone do yourself.
It will take them longer to study the problem and give you an estimate than it will for them to do it..
..If everything goes well this is a fast and painless fix

LlBr

Really? THAT would be too much to witness.

Reminds me of those expert tree surgeons who studied my hazardous tree for an hour figuring out where it was going to fall only to make their cut and have it destroy what we wanted to avoid.

If I were on my own I think I'd make a jig for it (like a wide squat hydraulic press) and use a bottle jack and carefully add force that way.Use a carefully considered hard styrofoam shape with a thick plywood layeredbacking against the head of the jack. Would have to consider the structure of the hood reinforcements too. Probably can only add force along the edge. Could possibly add and subtract and change the shape and thickness of the stuff as I went thru the process if adding force. Checking progress against a pre-made template. That's how I'd think of doing it if I were determined to do it myself. Again going very slowly and evaluate progress.

I wonder how the pros actually do it? Like you said? Scary if so. I'd have to have extreme confidence in the guy who was doing it. Otherwise I'd go my own way.

Has anybody ACTUALLY SEEN this problem corrected with perfect results? How DID they do it?

Crank

If they ding it while straightening it and it needs to be repainted....

.... then is white an easy color to match?

I don't want to have a big cream-colored spot in the middle of the glorious white hood.

LlBr

I'm just a hobbiest but I can tell you I had damage to my fiberglass hull on my boat. The patch job was easy to comprehend. How they were going to match the EXACT white of the gel coat on the patch made me skeptical. Well, they matched it exactly! Quite impressive. On your hood? Again, I'm just an amateur hobbiest but I bet the whole hood will have to be repainted. It's probably easier to get excellent results that way.

BTW on my earlier brand new 997 the silver front bumper did not match the rest of the car. I freeked out. Upon further research I found that's not all that uncommon for new cars coming directly from the factory, sometimes the panels do not match exactly and Porsche says, "Oops, sorry, buh bye."

Crank

Well, if they paint the hood....

.... then will it match the fenders???

I am trying hard to keep my car Clean.

LlBr

See above, Buddy. (I added more of my two cents). I don't know what the chances of a brilliantly correctly-matched result will be. Depend$ on the $hop'$ reputation I gue$$.

Crank

Wow. Nuts. That's disappointing.

ked

Crank,
Yes, white can be matched.
Is this a car you already own or are you contemplating buying it?
What yr / mileage? Ever hit & repaired / repainted in its history?
If you are the sort for whom owning a virgin example is critical to your happiness, then you may face future issues having little to do w/ this minor one (perhaps you'd be happier w/ something else than a 20+ yr old 911?). Cars are machines that wear out & can be damaged in use. Paint keeps the steel from rusting. I can think of many ways in which I'd manage the circumstances of selecting / negotiating for an old, imperfect 911 - everyone must evaluate their own perspective, desires & path... or not. good luck!

LlBr

Nah. Not too bad. You figure if it's good enough for Porsche it's good enough for us. If I sell, buyers would have to know the truth: They come from the factory that way! Plus these cars can never be collectors items (like yours) so there's a different standard maybe. BTW, If I had your car I would drive it. Get it as perfect as possible given how much you want to spend on it and drive it.

Daniel Dudley

It's a lot like TV Magic Cards - Very Easy, once you know the secret . Most likely an experienced hand would tweek that in about five minutes, the same amount of time it would take to totally screw it up if you were ham handed about it.

I have been successful with this kind of tweaking, and I have been ''almost'' successful. Ah, well...

I would start with a paintless dent repair guy, because of their experience, and because they have a reputation to uphold. An upside is that they will also walk all around the car looking for small dings on the same visit.

Ed Hughes

White is pretty easy to match. A good shop will not just spray the hood, but would also blend into the fenders, which goes one step further toward a good match.

Crank

Good stuff, thanks!