I’ve been having problems with the Sunbeam’s hood, or bonnet in official English car terminology. There are two problems. First,
the space between the hood itself and the front valance was too small and the gaps between the hood and fenders was not even on each side. To address the gaps, I loosened the hinges at the front of the car and inserted paint stir sticks in the spaces between the hood and the rest of the car. I used this method successfully when attaching the fiberglass body panels to the 818 kit car. It worked on the Sunbeam as well. 
The second, bigger, problem with the hood has been with the latch mechanism. As you can see from the picture, the Sunbeam hood opens from the rear, that is at the windshield end, with the hinges near front grill. It is held closed by a stout pin on the hood and a clamping mechanism on the car. You can see Daniel attaching the pin.
The pin and clamp seem like a simple arrangement, until the two parts become misaligned. Then the hood either (i) does not stay closed or (ii) cannot be opened. The former is not a big deal when driving since the wind pushes the rear opening hood closed. The second is a big pain. When the pin 
becomes stuck, one needs to unbolt the hinges by reaching through the front grill. Small hands are a plus when this happens.
Unfortunately, I have had ample practice removing the hood and setting the pin alignment. The idea is to set the hood pin so that it is perfectly centered in the clamp. In the photo on the right, you can see the hook part of the clamping mechanism. Pulling on the hood release causes this hook to slide back (to the right) and release the hood pin. There is a second clamp under the hole in the center of the picture that is hard to see. This one moves to the left when the release is pulled.
In past garage projects I have used anti seize grease to mark where two pieces come together in a blind location. Anti seize is used to keep nuts and bolts from bonding together when they are tightened together for long periods. It is very sticky and stains hands, tools, and clothes.
For this purpose, the idea is to put the anti seize grease on one side, bring the parts together, and then look for a mark on the second part. In the picture on the left, you can see anti seize being applied to the pin. On the right you can see a piece of blue take covering hole in the clamp mechanism. And if you look closely, you can see a gray dot on the tape. In this case, the dot is not centered in the horizontal lines–it is a little bit high.
Sunbeam 