All,

I just had DINAN strut bar installed and the hood slightly raised by few mm. I believe the M7 bar has the same problem, which M7 noted on their product review but did not provide detail how to fix.

Do you guys know how I can mold the hood shield to fit perfectly with the DINAN bar (trying to avoid cutting) so the hood will be flushed/even again?

Thanks in advance!

Spin

 

Did you try soaking the engine blanket w/water then closing it overnight? Wetting the blanket helps it to mold to the bar.

Cover the bar w/ plastic wrap first to avoid marring. This is how they suggest doing it for the M7 bar anyway...

 

No, I haven't tried anything yet. Thanks for the tip. If I do not hear back from DINAN today, I'll try your suggestion tonight.

Since you mentioned wetting the hood shield and close hood overnight. How about I run the engine for few mins. (until its warm/hot), shut engine off, wet the hood shield, then close the hood for an 1hr. Do you think I will give me better result in molding the bar?

 

I'd do it cold actually... the extra heat might cause the felt (like?) material to dry too soon, and/or damage the plastic wrap. Best to just let it dry slowly over time for maximum mold-age.

 

Got it!!

Thanks again!

 

Actually they suggest doing it when the engine is warm. Of course you don't want the engine hot enough to melt the plastic.

I actually did this process with my M7 bar and my hood still sat high after. I actually took my hood liner off, trimmed and removed some of the insulation on the underside of it where the bar makes contact. That way no cutting or any visible alteration of the hood liner can be seen.

Worked like a charm for me and my hood sits flush again

 

I really love this forum!!! Removing the shield and modifying whats underneath (insulation) never crossed my mind. I will use your suggestion if option 1 doesn't work for DINAN bar. I heard M7 bar is much thicker so you can actually see the hood raised vs. DINAN is slimmer, less noticable and much easier to fix the problem. More or less, I just want the outcome to be flush.

Thanks!

 

Your welcome and no problem at all!

 

Could you please post pics of this? I'm very interested in seeing exactly where you needed to remove material and how much was removed. Thanks.

 

I plan on doing some work on my car this weekend. If I have time I'll pull the liner and take some pictures for you.

In a nutshell tho, I just laid the M7 bar on the ground then outlined around it on the underside of the liner. I then took a exacto knife and cut out the insulation in that area. I took out almost all of it out, I left a small amount in just in case some rubbing or wear happened. It only took about 20 min to do and you can't tell anything was removed after the liner was reinstalled

All in all it turned out perfect, no rubbing and my hood closes completely

 

I have the Dinan bar, and a few soak-and-slams worked.

mb

 

Wish mine woulda worked... Funny the differences between cars eh?

When I started trimming there were parts of the liner that were so compressed from wetting it, shutting the hood, letting it dry that it was hard like a thin layer of pressboard

 

On mine I did the soaking method but it wasn't quite enough so I removed the liner and on the back side I could see the outline made by the strut bar. I then shaved that area down with an old electric knife, with great results. You just need to be careful not to shave too deep and do it with the knife on its side.

 

I draped the bar with waxed paper and a towell. That made the liner compress more than needed and now the hood closes flush and there's no contact on the underside at all.

 

Direct from M7:
http://www.m7tuning.com/techinfo/Ins...stbfitment.pdf

 

Had the same issue with my first M7 STB.Did the soak and slam technique. Bonnet still sat high. Thats when i decided to remove the insulation. Replaced it with some "BLING". That was a while ago. Worked out fine. Bonnet sits like it should. Pics in my gallery

 

I was going to say that it actually is posted.

 

I had the same problem with my Dinan bar. I bought it from a Dinan tent at a local event and asked the rep if it would do push the hood up and was told it would not. When I asked M7 they were honest and said yes it would. When I got home and installed it, it raised the hood. When I contacted Dinan all they told me was there is something wrong with my car and its not their products fault. Should have went with the M7, at least they were honest.

 

My M7 raised the hood a little bit, nothing too drastic though.

 

It raised mine a little too, but it settled in with a few rounds of driving and closes fine now.

 

No need to remove the hood liner. I'm just curious how it looks now to give me an idea of where and how much needs to be trimmed. That way I can see what I'd be getting myself into.

Thanks.

 

Thanks to your tips, my hood is very close to being flushed with the body. So close, you can't even tell hood is raised now, but I'm just a perfectionist, so I can still see hood is still raised by .05mm!

Since DINAN was not kind enough to inform their customers "slight modification is needed", I did the following to flush the hood after DINAN bar was installed:

1. Warm up your engine
2. Spray "more water the better" the hood shield/liner - ONLY spray the area that touches the bar.
3. Put damp bath towels over the entire bar - yes folks we are making a DINAN waffle for breakfast.
4. Close hood and let it sit overnight

NOTE: After you close the hood, you will see hood is raised even more (due to bath towels over the bar), don't worry, it will settle down and provide a better mold the following day.

I suggest you do these steps twice/three times for best results.

 

If you don't mind a little noise, take the liner out! I also installed thin heat barrier with sticky tape on one side to cut down on noise and heat. I had JCW, up graded to the M-7 Black Chrome. Before i took out the linner it would corode the bar. Wished I was computer savy enough to post pic of it, but lets just say in past 2 years won over 25 throphies and placque with my BLUCOOPR.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the M7 bar is thicker/fatter than DINAN, which raises the hood a lot more, so removing the liner or cutting the insallation is probably a better solution.

 

I think that it is, but the water method works fine for adjusting it.