It's a 72 220d, so pre-facelift. Even though I will (apparently) need that gasket, unless it's fairly thick I'm afraid that's not what I'm missing. I'll attach some pictures of what I'm talking about. Looking at the car, the grill shell is being held exactly where it would be if it were attached. The picture isn't great, but you can see about a 1/2" space between the grill shell and the hood.

The shell itself doesn't look bent, and neither does the hood. I don't think either one is post-facelift (i.e., wrong for the car), because except for this they line up perfectly. Any idea what's going on? Maybe I should just quit being a sissy and torque it down and make it fit--it's just that doesn't seem like the thing MB would do.