All of the front strut-top braces that I have seen put some pressure upward on the hood, by pressing deep into the hood-liner felt.

The resilient felt material is very springy, and thus presses on the underside of the hood, forcing it up and out of line with the body, at the back.

It is not a great idea to remove the felt, as it helps protect the hood from being creased or dented by the bar if they ever touch. If you permanently compress the felt instead, it will continue to spread the area of contact between the bar and the the hood, but without pushing the hood up.

I tried using water on the felt, as suggested elsewhere, but that only did about half the job - the hood still sprung up out of line, although a bit less.

I finally adapted the hood blanket for my OMP brace by using hair-spray to keep the felt compressed. Yep- plain old ladies' hair spray.

It now looks like MINI molded the blanket to fit the brace perfectly, and without any cutting.

(Caution: hair spray can be flammable when wet...)

I covered the strut bar with aluminum foil to protect the paint, placed a towel to catch any drips, and soaked the felt where it touches the brace with "Firm-Hold" "All-Day-Long" unscented hairspray.

Then I closed the hood, folded another towel to cover just the area where the bar touched, and loaded the towel with a hundred pounds or so of sandbags, to squash the felt hood blanket as thin as possible overnight.

The next morning I removed weight and the foil, and the blanket had taken a perfectly molded set, without any visible trace of the hair spray. My hood now sits where it was before I installed the brace, since the felt is no longer pressing up on it.

The best part of this is that I had found the hair-spray under a bathroom sink recently - it was the last vestige of my ex-wife in the house, so I ceremonially tossed the can when I was done...

 

Cool tip, thanks .

 

But does your MINI sound like Ricki Lake now?

 

Please, be moderate in your use of hair spray. Excessive use can result in terrible mutations...

 

Clever idea. I have an M7 bar on the way so this will work nicely should i need to do any fitting.

 

I've seen the M7 strut brace on two Ss recently - both owners had cut the underhood blanket to fit it - there is just not very much space there for a brace.

 

I'm wondering what makes hairspray more effective than water. The alcohol (or whatever) softens the material more? Did you also use the weighing down technique when you tried water?Nah, seek out the most nasty perfumey stuff.

 

I used the old "soak-and-slam" method with just water, and I don't have a hood bulge anymore, but it did take a week or so after the initial soaking before the gap went away totally.

 

If you use water, there is no particular reason why the felt should stay squashed afterward - all you are doing is re-wetting and softening the "sizing" that they used to make the mat hold its shape.

The hairspray basically glues the felt fibers together, so that the mat cannot expand and put pressure on the hood. It also contains alcohol, so it might be doing a better job of softening the original sizing than water.

It's the difference between soft natural hair, and a hair-helmet caused by hairspray...

 

Excellent tip! I will try that when I re-install my bar.

dan

 

I tried wetting the felt. It worked but not completely. I even tried removing the felt and cutting away the underside, (the side against the bonnet). Still unsuccesful. I will try the hairspray next. At some point the gap will disapear, I hope.

 

I removed the felt all together, problem solved

 

Are there any pros/cons for removing the felt? I have been thinking of doing this for some time. TIA

 

Con: Increased noise.
Pro: ?

 

I really felt or heard no pros or cons. It solved my pushed up hood issue and I liked the look better.