sorry for the delay. Work takes a lot of time from me
here is a pic of what the ball joints look like screwed into the hood
Here is a pic of the strut base (re-using the stock bracket)
here is a full shot of the strut standing up
Here is a picture of the hood opened all the way
Here is a picture of the minimum heigth required for the hood struts to be able to hold the hood up and open (anything lower than this, and the struts can't keep the hood open)
Here is a pic of how much rod travel was left with the hood fully closed (taken through the driver side hood gap)
Here is a pic of the remaining rod travel on the passenger side with the hood fully closed (taken through the passenger side hood gap)
Here is a picture of what the chopped tie rod end looks like screwed onto the end of the gas strut
THe hood fully closes and doesn't have any extra visible strain due to the hood struts. Both struts still have a little bit of travel left with the hood fully closed (the driver side mroe than the passenger), and it works great
I don't know if any of the e-bay hood struts will work, but I doubt it. All those seem to need 10mm ball studs for both ends. It will be difficult finding a 10mm ball stud that screws into a M6X1.0 hole.