First Car Build...Oh Boy. 

A tip for the Mr surfacer 500,turn the jar upside down,let it settle into the lid,turn it back upright and then use the settled sediment as the filler,once dry,soak a cotton but in Mr Colour thinners and remove the excess,no sanding and no shrinking

Prayers for your brother,from Cheshire England 🇬🇧

Fist full of problems there Terry, you're a brave man. You should be able to straighten the steering wheel using hot water to soften it.

I'm not a car builder either, but you might consider adding some styrene sheet on the edges of the hood to close up the gaps.

I’m also working on my first car for a group build on another RU-vid channel.