Rear lid lift srtuts

Someone will respond with those air struts but here's what I did.....Bruce

Nice approach!

Thanks

Holy crap that's a nice engine wall treatment.  Can I say "crap"?  You should make some more up and market it.

Sorry, No I have not installed lift struts, but the engine interior is still nice.  Good job.

Craig....It would be hard to get a pattern that would fit all our different cars and if it's not a really good fit where everything joins together it wouldn't look very good. To get this one right it took making patterns out of poster board the tracing that on to some cheap galvanized 24 Ga. sheet metal from Home Depot and making fine trims on that before tracing that pattern on to the engine turned stainless for the final cuts and bends.

The "Hood Latch" works really well though. That was the first mod I did to Rhonda. There's one guy out here that did a really nice and simple job using an air cylinderand posted photos of it. I don't know why I didn't think of that first !.......Bruce

Just thinking about that air cylinder again.....How the heck do you calculate how powerful of a cylinder you need? How do they power rate them ?.......Bruce

@Cole Thompson- added a gas strut to his rear deck lid and when he pulls the engine lid release the gas strut pushes it up. I don't remember what length and weight the gas strut is but after he sees that I mentioned him in this post he may come on and tell us what he did.

https://www.speedsterowners.com...am/true/IMG_0150.MOV

I did a gas strut and use a solenoid to release the latch and all worked fine but the strut was too strong at about 35lbs. I removed the gas strut because I couldn't find a softer one. A fifteen lbs strut would have worked fine in my application. The gas strut was fitted low on the firewall and attached to the rear of the rear deck hinge. 

David Stroud posted:

I did a gas strut and use a solenoid to release the latch and all worked fine but the strut was too strong at about 35lbs. I removed the gas strut because I couldn't find a softer one. A fifteen lbs strut would have worked fine in my application. The gas strut was fitted low on the firewall and attached to the rear of the rear deck hinge. 

IIRC Cole said he used something around the 15 lb. mark. Anything too strong and it'll put too much pressure on the corner of the lid possibly damaging it.

Ken Vella offered a nice spring loaded pin to replace the standard "pin in hinge" option.

Bruce, I've said it before, that is truly remarkable (both your hinge lock and firewall)

I put in a 25# strut, only one and it was too strong. Pushed the lid out of "square" Took forever to re-align the lid. Worse than hanging a new door. Took the strut out. I am happy with Ken's spring loaded pin.

Art

I had heard that the lid is pretty difficult to get aligned correctly. Thats why I just drilled a bunch of 1/4" holes next to each other, used 3 hacksaw blades mounted on my hacksaw to saw out between each hole, then rotary filed the rest to smooth out the slot. This way I didn't have to disturb the perfect lid adjustment. If you try this be sure to completely cover your engine with an old sheet and bring the edges of the sheet up and tape them to the perimeter of the engine compartment opening. This way you totally catch ALL the aluminum filings and shavings.......Bruce.

Habanero52 posted:

Has anyone installed assisted lift struts on the rear lid?

Habanero52;  Search for, struts engine lid, etc. on this site. There have been a couple of threads on this topic.

Thanks guys!

art posted:

I put in a 25# strut, only one and it was too strong. Pushed the lid out of "square" Took forever to re-align the lid. Worse than hanging a new door. Took the strut out. I am happy with Ken's spring loaded pin.

Art

That's exactly what happened to me too, Art. I think 10 lb. would be ok . Just enough to spring the lid up a bit and you could finish the lift by hand and it would stay there till you pushed it down. Some better geometry would be of use but the space and fix points are limited. Cole pulled it off nicely, though. 

This is what I used for mine:

Struts for Rear Deck Opener

http://www.suspaparts.com/
C16-09202, 16” extended length, 38lbs of pressure

38lbs?

Bill, so glad you questioned this, it should be 28 lbs! 

Please see this link for much more detail, it was written back when I did this project.

https://www.speedsterowners.com...tic-rear-deck-opener

Cole Thompson- posted:

Bill, so glad you questioned this, it should be 28 lbs! 

Please see this link for much more detail, it was written back when I did this project.

https://www.speedsterowners.com...tic-rear-deck-opener

 

I didn't remember it being 38lbs either but then again, I didn't put it in. LOL

Cole, the 28lbs did not wipe the lid up to fast too high? I gather you manually positioned the lower mount to not have full open and lid hitting any body parts to chip away paint? Another question, how long is your strut- website doesn't list the length in the detail section? Thanks  

Michael, have you seen the Video?  The lid goes up "briskly."

Yes, I position the lower end of the strut so that the lid did not hit the body.   I believe the strut was 16 inches long extended. 

I did this mod for two reasons: first I hate putting that little pin in the hinge and second, if there is a fire I don't want to be messing around with my hands in the fire. 

Hello Cole, I was thinking of the same thing, pull knob-lid goes up, point fire extinguisher; I was thinking the same thing when I saw the video. Thank you for the length info. And yes that pin is a pain.