I got my harwood 4" cowl hood and after i got it painted i didnt like how it felt with the hood struts on, when you closed it it felt as if the hood was stressing from teh force, went to the junkyard got some weak ones, too weak.

I was thinking it was about prop rod time but was worried about it for when i show the car if the wind came up or someone knocked it off so i came up with this

Took 2ft of 1/16" steel cable, 4 cable furles, 4 trailer hitch pins? and some heat shrink,

I took off the clips off teh strut that hold the strut onto the mount stud and ran teh cable and pins similar to a hood pin setup, the pins slide over the stud and lock into the groove preventing the strut from sliding off the stud and the cable keeps everything together, heat shrinked it so there is no chance of anythign scratching and the yellow tape is just temporarily there to hold the cable to the strut i want to try something else though to keep the cable attached to the strut, now all i have to do is pull four pins and pull off teh struts when i go to close it so there is no chance of the hood stress cracking or bowing. Real easy spent under 5 bucks for everything plus it looks stock.

 

Not a fan of the yellow tape but it keeps the cable there and will remind me to take them off, harwood says you can use strong struts but it felt like it was going to crack from them and it would slightly bow the hood when closed in the heat, anyone know where to find a lower psi struts i guess?

 

order the factory fiberglass ones

go to a dealership

 

yeah, what he said, i did, adn they work great with my ram air ii hood

 

Cool!

 

You can also keep the weak ones, and get something to keep them up. My dad got one from the Mac tool guy, it's just a sleeve that goes around a hydro strut, and it has a bolt going into it that you tighten and it makes the hydro stay, and there's no damage, and it looks fine.

Or you could get the factory fiberglass ones hehe...

 

I just bought some for a 82-83 Camaro with a fiberglass hood, they work mint on my glass one too

 

That's what I did. Much better than getting weak ones or using the prop rod. Been there done that.......for 2 years. You don't even have to get them from the factory. From what I have heard, Autozone and checker have started selling the struts for 82/83 glass hoods. Much cheaper than the factory and you'll be able to use the hood like you're supposed to.

 

pretty sweet!

 

... some hoods don't need special shocks...

 

Harwood says you can use the stock strength struts, i jsut dont trust em seem way too strong for the hood when your closing it. I'll probaly just run to gm and pick some up or

Drill a hole very carefully so i dont kill myself in the weak ones which seem to have really no gas left and put in a little winged screw or something that i can tighten the center rod down onto to hold em. Thanks for the idea kbeez, definately gonna wear safety glasses if i try it.

I think you mean its like a littel ring that goes at teh top of the inner rod to keep it form sliding down right, might be smarter to rig something liek that up than drill into a charged strut

 

very good idea! i love creative crap like that, basicly being the main reason i'm studying engineering... good idea; the cable prevents the shock from compressing, thus keeping the hood up... looking at it, you may be able to just use one side if you like... i've held up hoods using a vice grip on one side....
good job, dude

 

Edit: I just reread your post and yeah, a little ring would work perfect. If you could make it small enough and then have a little inset allen screw or two it would look very clean as well. This way at a car show the hood couldn't come down any way at all unless you intended it to or whatever.