Sign of damage or hood half unlatched?

[Vpr898]

Hi, this is my first post and I am nearing the purchase of my first Viper.
It's a 1996 GTS that looks to be in excellent condition

I'll spare some of the details and get to my question. In two of the photos provided by the dealer, I noticed a much larger gap between the hood and headlight on one side of the car vs the other. I'm familiar with how the hood is opened and to me it looks like one side simply wasn't latched all the way down. I would really appreciate those much more familiar than I taking a look at two of those photos. My contact with the dealer has been productive but the salesman to whom I showed these pictures didn't quite understand what I was trying to convey. I've been told that the car looks perfectly fine and I've been promised some more pictures Monday morning to confirm.

Thanks in advance for any insight you might be able to share
(I added the ovals and arrows)

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[roller]

Definitely not aligned right. Hood could have been taken off and not reinstalled right or could have had some front end issue. I would see if the dealer can make the left side look like the right.

Frank

 

[Vpr898]

Thanks Frank,

Think there's any possibility the photographer just didn't latch one side after staging the car? (There are open hood shots as well)

Todd

 

[Camfab]

Something Is certainly not correct. It is possible that the hood is not latched on the driver side, however it is also not likely that this would occur if it is adjusted properly. There are two rear locking points and two latch points up front. The rears settle into position as the cowl side lowers into place. As you push down strategically on the front nose of the hood, if the latches are improperly adjusted one side may not engage. As an FYI the hood can be removed at any time by removing the four bolts that secure the hood to the spring hinge assembly. This will not affect the alignment of the hood. If the spring hinge assembly is removed from the body, you open up a can of worms. Misalignment issues are very common on these cars, usually because of an accident, but also from the factory.

 

[Vpr898]

Well, not quite the news I was hoping for, but I'm really thankful for the responses.

Perhaps there was some unreported damage after all
I'm anxious to see the new photos on Monday

Todd

 

[EllowViper]

My 2001 has/had the same issues...and I've had my entire front end off several times and what not. But that can be adjusted out pretty easily. I won't let the dealer/retailer touch it since they'd just mess it up fumbling around trying different things; unless is a well known Viper dealer. If the rest of the car is solid, pick it up. Then you can meet up with a member and work together on the rest of the little things you will find after ownership. OR as has been stated, maybe the hood simply just isn't latched correctly!!

 

[Sybil TF]

My 96 GTS has a little bit of that going on but not that bad. There is a couple threads on the other sites that goes into great detail on how to fix this...

 

[Steve-Indy]

Sometimes one cannot see the damage easily...until inspecting the radiator surround, headlight mounts, overflow bottle in the nose, etc.

 

[Vpr898]

I received new pictures this morning, as promised. And, truly, everything looks great.
My suspicion that the hood was partially unlatched was never completely confirmed, but I'm going to settle on that until I have any reason to believe otherwise.
Thank you all very much for your input!