Wonky Front End - Repair thoughts?

[bigmistake]

Today was my first day to have time to tear into my MJ.  I started by trying to figure out what exactly is crooked/bent on the front end.  It is obvious there was a collision of some kind - the area the bumper is mounted is REALLY bent.  Any thoughts on straightening it?

 

Pics of the bumper mount area:

 

The other side for comparison: 

 

From the front: 

 

 

 

So, after looking at that for a while, I decided to pull off the front fenders.  There has been some crookedness there, so I wanted to see if I could fix it.  I ended up finding a lot more weird stuff.

 

Driver's side: 

 

 

I was able to get the fenders flush with the front clip (I need to replace both fenders... one is a weird aftermarket fender that doesn't really line up with anything or have the same setup that the maroon one has).  But the hood seems to be crooked.

 

Hood Passenger Side: 

 

 

Hood Driver Side: 

 

 

Overall showing how the gap grows:

 

 

Alright, photo dump done. 

 

Any thoughts on how I should tackle this?  I'm thinking picking up some new fenders and maybe front clip since all of that seems to be a mismatched mess.  I'd love to get the bumper mount sorted out.  Should I just beat on it with a hammer?  Heat it up with a torch and then beat on it/pull on it?

 

And for the hood... should I loosen up the bolts near the cab and shimmy it over until it looks more aligned?  Or is it a more serious issue from the front end collision? 

 

Thanks for any help/insights!  I would have never tackled all this stuff without this site... and I'm having a blast!

[Keyav8r]

It looks Iike the inner fender (?) was repaired and the replacement part was cut too short.  That would account for the gap misalignment across the front of the hood as the header panel mounts to the fender structure.  Is the fender on the driver side the aftermarket one?  That could contribute to the overall alignment issue.  On my ‘91 the fenders don’t align flush with the ends of the header panel.  They stick out just a little on each side (maybe 1/16” to 3/32”) and I haven’t seen any evidence of front damage/repair on the truck.

 

Your hood gap at the firewall looks fairly even, maybe a little wider on the driver’s side.  Hard to tell with the perspective.  If there is a difference side to side you might want to adjust that first and then bring the the other gaps to align with the hood.  It looks like the fender/hood gap is wider on the passenger side than on the driver side.

 

The collision that damaged the bumper mount could have misaligned the front clip.  You may be able to pound/pull some of bumper mount out, but it might be easier and quicker to cut the damage out and weld in a plate aligned with the driver’s side.

 

I’ll take a look at my truck to see if it gives me any better ideas on how to align your front clip.

 

[bigmistake]

Thanks for the reply, Keyav.

 

I didn't even think to measure the inner fenders to see how close they were.  I will do that today and see if there is what happened.  Good info on the gaps.  I can push them out a little bit.

 

The firewall gap is even with the hood.  The ridges in the hood aren't lined up perfectly, but overall it seems pretty close - I will align those and see what happens.

 

The passenger side is an aftermarket fender.

 

Good info on the bumper mount.  I was looking at aftermarket bumpers last night, and it looks like a lot of them come with plates that go over that area - so I might just pound it out for now as a temp fix and ultimately do a better fix when I'm upgrading.