Can you resolve this hood puzzle?

[kiheimatt]

I came across a hood that looks pretty straight, but someone had run a tig bead around the entire perimeter.

Any guesses or explanations for this?

[DaveB]

Original hoods were built slightly oversize and hand-filed to fit each car. When a hood is transferred onto another car it will need some building and filing to get a correct gap all round. So this hood has perhaps been prepped for another car but not installed.

[Benz Dr.]

Hoods are made in two pieces and then they're spot welded together around the entire outer edge. Sometimes the two halves will start to separate around the nose area and welding is required to repair this area. I see no reason to weld all the way around the outside unless it really needs it, which I doubt.

[dirkbalter]

I had to do a similar thing to the front edge of my hood. The gap to my front mask was approx. 15 mm after all the paint and bondo was removed.
If the welding that was done is good, you should be happy as it is a lot easier to trim it back to a perfect gap instead of adding material.