M7 Science Project!!

What is this? A science project? OK so I think too hard when I do a project. I am too picky about my toys so I ask 10,000 questions and read 3 books before I do anything. My analogy has always been "Ask me what time it is and I will explain how the watch works..." Isn't that the fun part of life?

Back to the science project. I bought this strut tower brace at MINIs on the Dragon from the future Queen of Nebraska before I knew her name. She was carrying one of these M7 braces in one arm literally like a bunch of flowers covered in bubble wrap and I said, you look like a beauty queen! Wow.. that was really psychic! I was at the Detroit Tuned booth talking to a guy doing a strut brace install on a car. I had been concerned about the tight clearance on the hood. The hood insulation literally touches the bar after the install. If my hood were to be one millimeter out of line I would go crazy. I want the brace for the slight handling improvement but mostly the strut tower plates to prevent any possibility of the legendary mushrooming of the sheet metal after a hard impact. http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78629

I have been reading about this on the NAM site for a long time so I would rather err on the side of being careful. So the dilemma, I want the bar but I am scared of the hood alignment outcome! Afraid I say...maybe I watched Charlie Brown too much as a child...well cut me some slack there were only three channels back then and nothing was on. But that is another story.

Last Friday I called M7 tuning http://m7tuning.com/ and talked to Shelly Horvath, Director of Marketing & Customer Service. She figured me out really quick. She said "Andrew it will be ok, we have sold hundreds of these! Many MINI dealers are installing the plates or bars as the cars are delivered. Don't make a science project out of this!" We laughed. She sent me the install directions for the bar via e-mail. The title of the e-mail was "M7 Science Project."

Well if you look in the picture I am taking this install to the maximum. The hose can be seen on the left "injecting" H2O into the insulation fabric. Forget a squirt bottle, I am going for some massive amounts of Dan River water. I soaked this thing for a while and installed the bar. The posts I have read said use protection on the bar to prevent the moisture from white spotting the bar while the insulation is drying. The NAM posters were right. I had some drips on my fender and they were ugly white globs. Imagine that on my pretty little M7 black brace. Nothing some Hydro cleaner couldn't clear up in short order! Man that stuff is great. http://www.detailersparadise.com/_system/_advancedstore/qryProductSearch.asp?Action=Search&SearchQuery=hydro&SearchType=1