I picked up a Whiteline strut tower brace from Autoanything.com but it doesn't seem to fit correctly. It just barely makes the hood not close.

What am I missing on this install? Not enough beers before starting the project?

There were no instructions included, but the plastic bags covering the brackets had R and L written on them, and the air filter and carburetor would be in the way if I has tried to reverse it. Also, it was essentially already assembled so I can't see any way that the bar would go down. I haven't tried that yet but I am pretty sure it would hit the fan. Not to mention, the photo on their Web site show it on the same way that I have installed it.

Whiteline KSB608

Whiteline Strut Braces - Free Shipping on Whiteline Strut Bars - Best Price on Whiteline Suspension Strut Tower Braces

Seems like it must be something simple I am missing.

 

I don't think it's made to work with the stock air box or at least stock snorkel.

 

EDIT: Ignore me. That's exactly what you were talking about :P
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It does indeed like you've got mounted like their picture. If you were looking at it from the front of the car it would be like A in my (crappy) drawing below. Did you try at all to see if it would fit as in B below? Not sure if it would interfere with other objects, but it seems like it might go under the snorkel and miss the fan....maybe not. Worth a try?

 

The one I have doesn't clear the air cleaner snorkel and comes very close to the alt. It was a $30.00 FC strut bar.

You could mark the places it hits the hood and use a BFH to modify the under hood structure somewhat. Kind of risky though.

 

After a fresh night of sleep, I realized that my beautiful hood is slightly delaminated and the inside of the hood is slightly separated from the hood. Dropping the hood from a couple inches results in a thud. I gently pushed it closed at the latch area and it closed. I will need to put something between there to prevent rubbing. Or I might be able to fix the hood with some epoxy. Looks like Mazda used some sort of black stuff that looks like hardened butyl.