Don't worry about your center bracket not being factory correct for now. It has nothing to do with the wonky way your hood closes.
It is time for you to follow Kevins advice and follow the instructions in the link that he posted. There is a lot going on with adjusting these hoods. Following those instruction to a T has helped a lot of folks to get their hoods on right.
I don't see how performing the full alignment procedure is going to fix my issue.
With the hood support springs removed, the hood IS aligned properly to the cowl and front clip - which brings me to step P in the alignment procedure. Once the hood support springs are installed, the passenger's side spring pushes the hood up in the rear on that side by 3/4" - 1". Remove the spring, and the hood sits down and appears aligned properly.
I don't think this is an alignment issue; because as I said above, the hood is aligned with the hood support springs uninstalled. I think there is an issue with the passenger's side hinge assembly - something is wrong with it that is allowing the hood support spring on that side to push the hood up by 3/4" - 1" at the cowl with the hood closed.
