I installed the Z1 hood struts today. The only problem was on one of the struts the C clip inside of the cup was stopping the ball from fully going in. As a result I couldn't insert the locking clip. The fix was to take a small flat screwdriver and rotate the C clip until it was sitting in such a way that the ball could be fully inserted.
As far as the "hood bulge" issue,
I studied my hood prior to the install and noticed the driver side sits higher than the passenger side. This was consistent for the length of the hood. I did not notice a change after the hood was installed.
IMG_2672 by
J M Gale, on Flickr