Front Hood Gas Strut Installation

With the front hood mounted and working nicely, it was time to install the gas struts, or Trunk Shox, that I bought from Camp 914.

They took all of about 15 minutes to install.  First you remove a bolt from the rear of the hinge bracket on one side, and mount the bracket with the pivot on it.

Then you mount the other pivot point bracket to the rear-most slot in the formerly-used spring bracket.  I found the bolt was just a tiny bit too big to fit, so I drilled it out to size, then tightened it down.

Next you unclip the locks on each end of the gas strut, pop it on to each end then re-clip the locks.  You can see that the weight and stress bends the lower bracket slightly.  Once it got to the point below, it has stayed at that angle through 20 or so open/close cycles.

Pop the brackets and strut into the other side.

The struts are selected perfectly - they hold the hood up easily but when you lower the hood, it gently drops into place and you can snick the hood closed.