When I went to install the hood it wouldn't close. One of the underhood braces interfered with the battery box. Some surgery was required. We bolted a brace to the hood so that the shape wouldn't be altered and then cut out a portion of the brace, leaving as much depth there as possible to maintain strength. We took the cut out portion and flipped it upside down inside the void to reenforce the area and then filled it with some crumbled up aluminum foil. We reinstalled the hood and closed it to make an impression in the foil.
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| The hood with the relief finished |
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| It hurt a bit to cut up a perfect hood but there was no choice |
Fortunately, we had plenty of clearance so all that was left was to fabricate a cover to dress up the cut portion. We found a new metal fabricator, Mike, who did a great job. He added a radius to the patch so that it matches the original brace shape. You'd be hard pressed to notice the change.
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| Test fitting the new cover (the original removed portion is upside down inside there) |
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| Working the metal into shape |
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| Partially welded in place |
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| The finished product. You'd never now it didn't come like this from BMW. |
