I attempted to better align my front bumper to hood and I think I ended up making the small mismatch worse. There was a small misalignment between my hood and one side of my bumper (this is definitely more of a nitpicky thing on my part) but every time I adjust one thing to line it up perfectly, it throws off the alignment somewhere else.

Is there a generic step by step approach to aligning the hood to the bumper on both sides? Looking for more of a do this step first to align A properly, then this step second to align A with B, etc. In my case, the part of the hood that comes down over the wheel well is slightly misaligned with the bumper on one side only and that side of the bumper seems a bit closer to the headlight than the other.

I have looked through the repair guide/bulletin that has been posted on other threads about this topic but I am checking to see if someone who has actually done this on their own car can chime in with any tips or easy to follow rules of thumb they learned when they went through the process. I only adjusted the rubber bumpers under the hood when I had a go so I am thinking I might have to loosen the front bumper and start with that to do this properly - feels like the bumpers are more of a fine tuning final step in the process. The bulletin does mention some screws under the car and under the hood that hold the front bumper still and in place.

Any experience derived tips that might make this process as straightforward as possible are much appreciated!

 

As well as the rubber stoppers under the hood, I have adjusted:
- the two bolts each side on each top corner of the bumper, just above and behind the lights (moves the ends of the bumper in/out a little)
- the door striker latches (moves the door shut lines in/out a little)
- the four bolts each side on the hood strut mounts (alters the fit of the hood a little)
- three of the six bolts across the front of the bumper (the LHS front hood/bumper gap was about 3 mm more than the RHS, now it is dead even).
- the plastic "stoppers" for the rear hatch (stuck some velcro under the LHS one to even up the gap when the hatch is closed).
Yes, this is very fiddly and took lots of trial and error but I have now got the alignment and panel gaps as even as I think is possible, but I still have the common misalignment of the corner of the hood shut line with the end of the bumper at the top of the front wheel arch (the end/edge of the hood sits a good 3 mm below the edge of the bumper), on the LHS.
This last misalignment is most likely due to the fact that I had a very minor bingle in this area and had it repaired.
I don't think there is any "correct" order to try all these adjustments and you just have to suck it and see.