Hood pin differences?

[bikewiz]

So I'm in process of putting the mini back together and had a huge problem getting the hood pin to line up. The original to my car was stuck/rusted in the old hood so I ordered another. As you can see from the picture they're completely different. I took the torch to the old pin and was able to free it, so I bead blasted it and used the old one which worked fine.
I guess this is one of those "some of the new parts are junk" post.

[94touring]

Hard to tell in the picture, but what's the difference in diameter of the heads on the pointy part?

[bikewiz]

They're basically the same size. I think it's the shape that makes the difference. The rounded shape pops out of the catch smoother. The spring holder also fits better on the pin and the spring.

[bikewiz]

So fooling with this hood pin more I found a nice stainless spring from McMaster-Carr to replace the regular steel spring.
Part number from McMaster is 1986K527 they come in a bag of 6 for $13.44 it fits nicer on the retainer and looks a whole lot nicer. As I now have 5 extras, if anyone is interested in one I'll give you one for the cost of me mailing it to you, just send me a message.