I decided to put the bra back on the car. The paint chipping is really getting bad. Might as well try to save it for as long as I can. Plus, I think the car looks great with the bra on it again.

The hood latch would not engage with the bra installed. You can see in the first picture above how the bra overlaps the front valence and connects under the hood itself to the radiator frame. The leather's not overly thick, but enough to keep the hood from going all the way down.

A 17mm wrench fits around the locking nut atop the latch pin. Simply loosen it up and rotate the pin so that it extends a little further outward than previously. Retighten the nut and voila...the hood pin will be slighly lower in the latch mechanism when the hood hits the leather canvas. Be careful not to scratch the hood or press too firmly on the hood attempting to close it. You might end up with far more than chipped paint to fix.