I made my own Aftermarket hood struts....here's how

[Kibwe Walker]

Originally Posted by Climber

Would any of these work?

eBay Store - The Parts Store: SUSPA Gas Springs Shocks Strut:

I was wondering about aftermarket ones aswell cause they are not hard to find if you just know the tension you need?

[SunDown13X]

pics or ban!

[Racer_X]

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.

[deft spyder]

Originally Posted by i3igpete

Deft's OEM-style hood with the revised (viper/victory) skeletons will have them. Don't know about the older deft hoods with the bad skeletons...

lol, bad skeletons? we've never changed a skeleton, dont know what you're talking about? none of our skeletons are based on any viper/victory design either.