any body have any pic. of homemade hood prop. hate those air pistons and tired of the old broom stick. looking to fab something that will lay in nicely and support hood. thanks.

 

I was thinking about doing something like this if I get a lift off cowl hood later on down the road. This idea is big with the mopar crowd.

 

killer idea for a show car. back of my head would be full of bumbs as much as i like to tweak things. do you know if those are actuators or some kind of manual lift and latch.

 

That's a manual lift and latch system designed for car shows.

I still use the gas struts for my hood. Without a pit crew, the hood is still too big and heavy for a one person lift off.

Just go to the junk yard and pull a hood prop off a car. There's lots of them out there that will work.

 

i am sure you could use some actuators for that. in fact thinking about it it would be really simple. just trying to make it look pretty might have its challenges.

 

i made mine out of a 1/4 inch piece of solid aluminum rod. i polished it up to make it look really nice and bent the ends in avice to make it fit the holesin the car and hood. will post pics later car is put away now

 

replace the "air pistons"

its a fine design...at a whopping 10-15 dollars a piece why would you go through the hassle of a hood prop?

 

I'd have to agree with nightrider87. they work well once replaced.... ('cept for my last car, where one seized, and I bend the mounting tabs on my hood, and my hood... and used a broom stick from then on...)


What about a 2nd gen wound up spring type of design?

 

replace the pistons. i did the prop rod out of polished stainless. looked good but only got in the way

 

i know pistons would be the way to go but this car is my play toy. i like to fabricate and build things myself. if i wanted things to all be the norm. id just go buy a new car. then id be board out of my mind.

 

when i first got my 86 trans am i had a 86 thunderbird so i took the factory hood prop from the thunderbird and installed it into my trans am it looks factory alot of people seem to think its a very rare option when they see it.

 

i only made a hood prop because i have a fiberglass hood that has no frame to it like some do. it flexes some when i put it up so i got a weaker set of shocks for it and made the hood prop to prevent my paint from becoming spider cracked if the hood flexes when it is up. the only reason i even use shocks at all is because after about 70 on the expressway my hood catches the wind and the rear lifts up about a quarter inch when the shocks are not in.

 

Yep...When i installed my ss hood i thought i would just use a prop-rod and run without struts. I was driving on the highway about 90 or so and a big wind lifted the rear of the hood up!

I have a set of used struts that are working just fine on the car now. And the hood stays down!

 

IF you have a fiberglass hood just find a pair of well used struts and they'll be weak enough not to flex the hood bad but strong enough to hoold the light wieght of the hood. As for stock hood just replace the struts. Nothing ( In my opinion) looks better than the hood looking "suspended in air".......

 

My hockey stick works great! Nicely doubles as 'security' too

 

LOL...

I guess my "well used" hood shocks are just a little too used. They don't even hold the weight of my fiberglass hood up. I'm still resorting to the Vice Grip Method on the shocks.

 

Another idea to think about... at our annual dyno gathering this year the dyno operator had a clamp with a set screw that he attached to the hood strut and it prevented it from falling down. Not sure where you would buy one but would be easy enough to come up with something similar.

-Schultzy

 

Good idea I might have to look into that.

 

i have used the vise grip method before but that hood is heavy to hold.

 

i used a piece of pvc pipe that fits around the strut ... put a notch on the end so that it sits at a angle while supporting the hood ... tao

 

nice... I've got a piece of 1/2" cpvc that I fed through the table saw to make a long, lengthwise slot in so that you can slide it over the shaft of the lift cylinder to hold the hatch up. I made similar ones for my K1500 blazer so that i can drive the thing around with the rear hatch glass open without worrying that it’s going to come slamming down on a bump

 

I have a piece of stainless steel tubing i use thats black now i'm gonna sand it and polish it but it fits into the secondary latch hole jsut a bit and the secondary latch fits inside the top so there isnt a way for anyone to knock it down at a show or anything and the wind cant pick the hood up and knock the prop out and slam

Plus you can cut it to different sizes to decide thow you like it you cna see the difference between mine and my buddy keiths factory props

 

Anybody ever try using a hood prop from a car that came with one ?

 

that has been mentioned several times in this thread.

i used to have a sawed off broom handle (dealer option code #123 ) but now have working shocks.

 

Two times... excuse me for missing them..