Hood alignment woes stripped bolt in hood

If memory serves me, it a 3/8"-16 thread and the nut is trapped inside the hood walls. Can the screw be part of the issue...but by now they're both probably screwed. Heli-coils are a pain in this situation, but could work out.

You might consider tapping the hole for a 10mm x 1.5. Tap drill size is a 8.5mm (.3346") or "U" (.332) or you could go to "R" (.339). Perhaps the hole is already that size or larger...in which case you have nothing to loose, a Heli-coil tap drill size will be larger than that. The difference between 3/8" and 10mm is almost .020" and that's a significant amount for a thread.

As far as the height issue goes: can you shim the fender up and still look good?