I had a '97 E250 in the medium blue metallic paint, one of the years Ford used the water-based primer. it was slick as snot on a door knob, HARD as nails and nothing would stick to it for any length of time.
With the darker blue body and the gray-white primer showing through it looked like a Pinto pony. Roof was so rusted (surface) I had a friend sand it smooth and apply a bedliner material. The body was left untreated, looked like less of a crook magnet that way.
If I were doing just the hood a decent sanding job to feather the paint edge and having it wrapped, either DIY or professionally. You could also use a tintable bedliner material like Monstaliner and adjust the finished texture to suit you desires, anything from smoothish to gnarly like large stones were encapsulated in the finish.