I finally found a Golden Pearl white LX hood in my area, attached to 98 LX470 (Yeti as he's know) with clean title. Hooray
It took 8 months, thanks for recommending I be patient
@Ali FJ80 &
@Julian Stead it paid off.
A little history of search:
Each morning I'd search within 1K miles, keeping out of rust belt. Saw two during that time at local Copart lot, but biding went way above my budget. The price pros are paying for some of these salvage titled totals at Copart is mind blowing high.
I did find some hoods within my search area but held-out for local, as yards are reluctant to ship hoods even if offered extra $$. I considered driving to pick up, but more than a day trip would run cost up to much. I also found some dubious venders, that speak as if they have a yard, but actually just shady valued added resellers or total scams.
As I said: patients paid off, as I found some great deals along the way, that I was able to benefit ($$ & knowledge) from. Then finally found what I was looking for in my search.
Bodywork:
Turns out the rig I bought for parts had pervious repair giving me some new parts, sweet. I actually replaced some parts I didn't really need, just because newer & better looking than mine. Like new repainted bump skin and new impacted zone bumper. Replacement Hood has original paint, just what I wanted. This saved me ~$4K (with bumper & paint) in body shop work and gets me the best matching paint available.
Before removing old bent parts (upper bumper reinforce, hood latch support and side brackets) I pulled straight. This helps to correct any minor bending of internal that may be unnoticeable to my eye. Like radiator support or wielded on support brackets bolting points, that I'm not removing. They look good but it's just best practice, plus gave me usable old parts. Old bent parts turned out so good I did not need to replace, but did anyway. My replacement parts fit perfect, which tells me I don't have any hidden damage. So my damage was only superficial damage, as I thought all along.
Bent internals, upper bumper reinforcement. Slight impact to bumper impact zone at bottom. This fit with high angle of low speed impact, as PO explained he slid on ice off his steep driveway into tree.
Slight bend of bracket mount, pulled out perfect.
This can push up hood latch making hood set high. Pulling out to correct angle (bow) pulls down tight, but effect is minimal. FSM shows this support as adjusting point for hood latch.
Final pull, worked great. All most look like new.
New internals parts in, confirming all components straight. SWEET.
I was able to move latch 16th", bam hood line up perfectly.
