Hey guys,

I have a 1989 f350 that I'm restoring. I bought a fiberglass cowl hood off of Craigslist a few months back , that I knew had a couple issues. The one issue is that the fiberglass is busted out around the underside of the hood where the spring hinges bolt to (just on the one side). I also lost the spring hinges somewhere during the resto. I am going to fix the hood where the spring hinges bolt but since there are another set of hinges on the cowl, I was wondering if anyone has ever used the hydraulic strut style hood props like the superdutys have. I might look into it myself to see what I can fab up but just wanted to check and see if anyone already has info on it.

Thanks

 

I've never done it, but it is a cool idea. Keep up on the thread if you do it.

 

I read the instructions for the install of a fiberglass hood recently, and it said not to use the stock springs. They supply a prop rod instead. I don't see why you couldn't use struts as long as they are properly rated for the weight of the hood. Ie. 500lb strut for a 50lb hood. You'd just end up breaking the mounts out of the hood if you tried to close it. Which sounds like what happened.

 

I asked this same question a few days ago. I only received one answer from Brad. And he said that he uses Ranger struts on his fiberglass hoods.

 

Places like McMaster Carr have a wide selection of struts of any variety. I bought some for a project car I helped on a couple years back.

Lengths and weight capabilities are listed.
McMaster-Carr

Use a scale to hold the hood up at the point of mounting to get some idea of how strong a strut you need to support the weight.

 

IIRC there's a write up that includes measurements and part numbers on the Lightening forums. I don't recall if it was steel or a fiberglass hood.


Some hatchback trunk struts would probably be more than enough for a steel hood. Steel hood struts would probably be a little on the strong side for a fiberglass hood depending on how you mount them. You might need to reinforce the bottom of the fiberglass hood or make a bracket with a very large footprint where you mount the strut if you want it to last a long time.

 

Thanks guys! I will do some checking around the lightning forums. I planned on reinforcing the hood where the mount would go. This hood is surprisingly heavy for fiberglass. Pretty close to the stock steel hood in weight. I don't know who makes it but I'm liking this idea of the struts and think they should work pretty good. Thanks guys!