Ok raise your hand if you carry around a 3ft something or other to prop up your hood. *Raises Hand* Although I have a dual purpose stick that will also prop up the rear hatch. LOL. It just seems like there is always something else I rather spend the money on than getting replacement hood struts or maybe I am fearful they will wear out too quickly. So has anyone seen some homemade / redesigned hinges that are better than stock. I think I might even be happier with spring loaded hinges or possibly some beefed up aftermarket struts.
Plans, blueprints, photos, *dxf files, Links, would all be appreciated! Thanks guys.

 

I remember the 'prop' I used--what a PITA! I purchased new struts a half dozen years or so ago and they still function as designed. For the convenience, they're worth every cent.

JamesC

 

go to a bone yard and grab a hood prop off a (choke) ford and bolt it on ... I got a lifetime warranty on my last set of hood lifts. I did think about one of these ford hood props but more for safety while working on the car then to just hold the hood up.

 

Most boneyards it's $5 per set of strut's.

Ive bought both teh front and rear set's for $5 per set at them, just lift up the hatch or hood if it fall's then leave it, if it stay's up leave it up and keep walking around looking for a bit then if it's still up take those.

 

I had some bone yards on for a couple of years and they worked okay. When one of them got weak I just bite the bullet for the front and went new.. And a month later bought the back. I got the lifetime warrenties which will now take care of both of my 3rdgens.

I say they are worth the investment. A good set should last years and I don't really want to prop up my Chevy and make it look like a Ford.

 

Here is a little trick: Stop carrying around a broomstick or whatever in your car to use as a prop, and instead keep some Vise Grips in your glovebox. When you need to open your hood or hatch (whichever may have a bad strut) clamp the Vise Grips on the silver part of the strut just below the black part. This will prevent the strut from closing and will also not be in the way as the stick would. Just make sure you don't forget to take the Vise Grips off before you try to close your hood though.

 

Uh.... Dude thats just not a good idea... Sorry to disagree with ya but Im not trusting a pair of vise grips on a smooth steel shaft to keep a heavy hood from coming down on me. Have you felt our hoods??? They are no joke. Pretty darn heavy... Atleast with the stick you'd have to knock it out for it to let the hood down.

Just bite the bullet and get some new struts. They arent THAT expensive. What...15 a piece new or something like that? And if you do what others have done and get lifetime warrenty ones, you'll never have to buy them again. Ive had a set of new struts on my 87 for over 4 years and they still work great. I just transferred them from my 87 to my new 86 and they hold like new.

J.

 

15.00 a piece? Where did you buy them? ..... I just got mine and was shocked at the 53.00 price of them. I was going to buy new hatch lifts but if the hoods were 53.00 I hate to think what the hatch's are.

 

i got my hood ones at autozone for $30 for the pair. They were like "Mighty-lift" or something I forget, but they work better than stock. The hatch ones were only a little more, but my stockers are still working fine.

 

So, first off, I have used both the prop (read Baseball Bat) on the hood, and the vice grips on the rear hatch.

For whoever said that they wouldn't trust the vice grips, believe me, they work, and don't look as ghetto as the damn bat (though it did look intimidating laying in the back seat...anyway). The shaft may be smooth, but the vice grips will grab on if adjusted properly.

I know I'll probably be kicked off the site for saying this, but I also own a Bronco, and it's hood hinges are probably the best I've seen. They are heavy duty, and that hood is probably heavier than the Camaro (or as heavy, I'm not about to weigh each one). I wouldn't say that those will drop right in, but I would start there and maybe look at a Ford Ranger or something a little smaller. It's not a shock, it's a coiled spring (sort of like a clock), and I've never had trouble with them - and the truck is an '88.

Just a little insight from someone who has used both, and knocked the bat out accidentally and taken a few hits to the arm and shoulder trying to block my head.

 

Autozone has them for about 15 a piece...

PolarrrBearrr: Agree to disagree then about the vise grips. Ive seen vise grips pop open when adjusted real tight. And Ive seen them slip. You will never see me using that method. Plus...isnt it hard to hold the hood up, then get around to the hinge? How do you manage that?

As for the prop rod. I can see how using a bat would be bad... First, a bat isnt even long enough to hold the hood open unless you have a super long bat. With a decent length stick, you can put it down into the bumper support, then up into the latch of the hood. Pretty hard to knock that out of the way.

Like I said...im sure people do it different ways, but for 30 bucks...why even mess around with sticks or grips? Just go buy new struts...

J.

 

^

I got mine from O' Reilys

$15 ea fronts
$30 ea Hatch

After 2 years the hoods are getting weak and the hatch still fully opens when i hit the hatch release button

If $30 lasts 2 years Ill be happy to shell it out
Hell tires dont even last that long and you dont see people scouring boneyards for them

 

*ROFL* I'm a sheet metal worker with the local union. We lift 55 gallon drums full of scrap steel with nothing more than a pair of vice grips and a strap. You need to start buying better vice grips. You'd be amazed at how much weight a good pair will hold

Mathius

 

Were you really *ROFL*??? I never questioned vise grip strength per-se. They CERTAINLY have their uses. I use them a ton. However...for 30 measly dollars why take the chance? Just get new struts and not deal with the hassle. Chances are you wont have to replace them for a good number of years. Like I said mine have been on for atleast 4 years without issue.

As far as lifting filled drums with a strap and vise grips goes... That would never fly at any of the shops/plants that Ive been a part of. When I was in the machine shop, if our safety director saw that...we'd be in deep crap. I guess you have to see things like that go bad a couple times before safety becomes more important than convenience.

Not here to argue...use whatever you want for a hood prop...haha makes no difference to me in the end. Just know that there are cheap ones out there so you can replace them without breaking the bank.

J.

 

been there done that, got tired of the pole and it being in the way, got new ones and was done with it. no problems since.

 

Just buy new ones. Brand new GM ones from a dealer are $30 each or you can go on eBay and get the same GM ones for around $25 if I remember correctly.

 

Ok...just a thought... Going back to what Pnormandin's original post was geared towards, and what PolarrrBearrr started to mention about different hinges...

Spring loaded hinges are definetly more reliable. I mean my 67 Bonneville had springs, and they lasted...well...from 67 to present.

There is someone on this board that was making billet hinges. They were pretty much a billet copy of the crappy ones that come on our cars stock. Im sure that changing the design wouldnt be that difficult, and it could be done so that the hinge set bolts right on, but accepts the spring unit off of something else...ie the fords that PolarrrBearrr was talking about.

Those billet hinges, although friggin awesome, are pretty pricey...so putting something together like that would probably be alittle over the top. Especially when you can just replace the struts. But people are always looking for custom ideas... Just something I thought of this morning.

J.

 

That's one down side to fiberglass hoods. A lot of times, good hood struts push the back of the hood up, when shut.

It's also a good reason to save your old, worn out struts. They may be bad for a steel hood, but good for a fiberglass hood.

 

I finally broke down and bought new hood and hatch struts two years ago. It was a great relief to finally not have to worry about holding them up whenever I needed to get something out of the hatch or work under the hood. Also, I got to ditch the 2x4 that was my old prop... as well as a parking brake for a not so short amount of time..

But now, after only two years, the driver's side hood strut has died. It is very annoying. The hood does not stay up on its own, and when I close it, it closes unevenly and the passenger side of the hood gets caught on the top of the fender near the windshield. I was thinking about ditching the struts altogether in favor of actual hood props. It is still up in the air right now. But I figure I will try a new set of hood struts one more time, and if they fail, try the prop idea.

 

I bought a new set of hood struts for mine a few weeks after I brought it home in Feb. They were like $30 off ebay... work fine so far.

I kept my old ones in case I ever get a 'glass hood.

They were "Stabilus" brand... I'll see how long they last.

 

Over this past week I got myself a new 4" cowl glass hood and a brand new set of struts for the hood. i've been using vise grips for about two years now and was concerned about the new shocks being too stiff for the fragile fiber glass, but when fully closed the shocks aren't putting any pressure on the hood, and It pushes down easily.

 

I dont have em for the hood, but I do have a prop for my hatch... that 4th gen spoiler is really heavy!

 

I use a pc of electrical conduit tubing that slides down over the strut.
A little wrap of tape on the strut body holds it up (slides over it) for when you want to close the hood. I've had this for 12yrs, never had a problem, or a hood blow down on me in the wind!

I have a picture, but can't upload it at work.

 

Ghettocruiser (sorry hadn't been reading the post for a while) I mostly use the vice grips for the rear hatch. I'm 6' and can pretty easily stand in the center, hold the hatch, and put the vice grips on. I'm not saying a short person couldn't do it, I'm just saying I've never really had an issue with it. Though, the more I think about it, I guess I could agree with the fact that it probably isn't the best method to use.

As for the front hood, the bat never seemed that short that I couldn't do what I needed to. If I was really doing a lot of work (and I haven't needed to do this yet) I'd just remove the hood all togther. Seeing as how I had a minor fender bender and the hood is no good now, and I am replacing with a fiberglass hood, I guess it's really not an issue now anyway.

As for this entire discussion, if I was doing work on my car on a regular basis and was in and out of the hood and hatch, I'd just buy new struts.

I'd rather spend a little money on struts than a lot of money on a hospital stay because the vice grips slipped or the bat got knocked out. I guess I've just been lucky so far...

BTW, since I am going to a FG hood, should I use a new set of struts, or the old, worn ones? I'm just realizing after reading all this that the FG hood wouldn't sit flush to the body with brand new struts...

 

My Cervini 3" fits 100% flush with new struts. Pushed the hood up nicely and closes well. Don't know what hoods don't sit flush, but my stock one and my 3" both are perfect.

The FB hood has a finished unerside, but still doens't weigh that much.

 

My big rubber aero wing formy spoiler likes to beat my hatch struts to death. I'm hoping a fiberglass replacement will be a little easier on them.

 

dudes,use a hood prop rod from an 82-92 s-10 (stick to gm ) works great,bolts up easily,looks decent,lays across radiator support,later jimmy

 

For the third gens, there are two different hood struts. One for the fiberglass hood that was available on the 82-84 models and one for the steel hoods for all years (that I think was the same for all years.)

So if you have a fiberglass hood maybe you should check out an 82 year Camaro with engine code 7 (LU5 engine, V8 with the crossfire TBI engine, fiberglass hood) and see what shows up.

On the Advance Auto site part #4134, $18.50 each, lifetime warranty for the fiberglass hood. Same site, part #4422, $17.50 each, lifetime warranty, for the steel hood.

The set of struts I have on my 82 Camaro, with a fiberglass hood, were put on in late 1999. They seem a little weak when I open the hood, but if I pump the hood a bit the struts are fine. Seems that they just need a little movement to get the gas pressure back up in them.

Dave

 

i love my broom stick hoodslashrear holder-upper thing

 

why carry around anything in your car?
pony up and get some struts.
besides, driving a thirdgen, your gonna need those vise grips for other reasons than holding up your hoood.

 

It will. Ever pick up a hatch without that spoiler on there? When I was aligning my rear deck lid, and I had the spoiler off, the struts would shoot the hatch open very fast. Almost scary fast. When I switch to fiberglass on the new car, Im going to order the struts for the non-spoiler car. There is a choice... Im assuming they dont have as much pressure.

One nice thing is...without the spoiler weight, when you hit the hatch pop, the hatch goes up on its own. Doesnt just sit there on the hatch motor.

J.