Thoughts on used front hood

I have a 996 C4S with 175k miles. I do think I will keep the car forever since they are going up in value but more importantly I love the classic look of the back. Long story short I am an idiot and had left the car on a trickle charger. Didn�t shut the front hood properly and drove off only for the hood to open and get damaged and crack my glass also 😭😭😭😭😭 thankfully I was on a local road and was able to pull over quickly and no other damage. Question is - does the value of these cars go down if I just find a new hood and get it painted ? Our 996s have steel hoods so in theory it can be repaired but I have a feeling it will be more expensive to repair than just get a new hood and repaint it. what are everyone�s thoughts on this ? Should I repair and keep the original vin number and matching hood or just buy a used and call it a day. I do plan on rebuilding the engine and with 175k miles it prob won�t ever be a garage queen car that goes up in value that much. mainly just looking to understand pros and cons and if anyone else has gone down this route.

I'd go with a replacement hood. They shouldn't be hard to find used and it should be a lot cheaper to paint than to repair because you would have to repaint the hood after the repair.. In judging for originality in a Concours, as long as you have 75% of the body with original paint, you are considered OK. One question I have is why didn't your hood open warning come on? And hang the hood up on the wall of your garage in the unlikely case that the heirs to your estate want to repair it.

Nobody buying a car with 200k on it is going to care if the hood is original. Any purchaser will care about accident history though, so just make sure the reason why the hood was replaced is documented and that should be good enough.

I would search long and hard to find a used hood in that same color, buy it and just bolt it on. No paint needed. I think the hood is the same for all 996.2s, no matter the trim. Try car-part.com which is a massive database of junkyards across the country, part-outs on FB marketplace, ebay, and craigslist. I have done this many times on all sorts of cars because matching metallic paint on an old car is very difficult.

Get a junk yard hood. Its easy to paint both sides.

Quotes source post: 20695733

I found an excellent condition hood for $200 and getting quoted around $300 to $400 for paint. Alternatively I used your suggestion to find a matched paint one which is in good condition also but he�s charging $600 shipped ($400 shipping) which one would you guys suggest ?? I am worried about paint matching a bit since I dealt with this in my carbon black e46 m3 and it never matched properly.

Our 996's are 20+ years old and counting. I would fathom a guess that, with VERY few exceptions, the majority of our cars have had some sort of paintwork done to them. I think only the lowest mileage, museum grade cars have pristine all original paint. The rest have had work done or have blemishes visible. Sometimes it is tough to live with, but at speed, while apexing the corners, they can't be seen and in those moments, they don't matter.