Update # 1999 has me looking for lift supports to to lift, and hold the trunk in the open position. Many has been the time when I have knocked into the stick that is holding up a 40 pound trunk and ended up getting smacked either on the shoulder, or back w/ that guillotine ( huh, spelled it right the first time, couldn't believe that it didn't flag me, so I spell checked it and sure enough,......guillotine)
Anyway, it was just another little "chip" that I had to pound out of the boulder before I can consider moving forward on the body work, as I knew that I had welding to do to fabricate the support mounts.
Determining how long wasn't so hard, getting the lift force figured out was. I weighed the trunk this morning, and it weighs a tick under 40 lbs. After compiling all of the other measurements, I decided that I needed two struts, 19" extended, and at least 14" compressed w/ a lift force of..............hmmm
( I start thinking)
If the trunk weighs 40 lbs, do I need two 20 pounders, or do I need two 40 pounders? I decided I'd call and ask.
I called Lift Support Depot. The nice lady informed me that she was not an engineer, and that they could only recommend a starting point because of that. I told her I understood, and asked for her recommendation. She said the recommended lifting force for a strut that could be mounted at the mid point of the trunk would need to be capable of lifting 1.5 to 2 times the rated weight of the trunk. Each strut.
That meant that I was looking for a strut that was rated at 60-80 pounds of lift force.
While that seemed excessive to me, I took her advice, and went to my local mom-and-pop auto parts store, and found two that would work (25.00 ea.)
I already had 4 10 mm ball studs from some earlier project, so my all-in total for the project was 50 bucks.
I did have to make the lower mount brackets, and I made those out of 1/8th plate, cut at a wonky angle, and folded at 90 degrees. Originally, I riveted them to the lower trunk rail, but after putting the system in use, decided they flexed too much, so I welded those pigs in there, and made some little out riggery dudes to help support the base mounting point.
I only rosette welded them in, I wasn't too keen about having rivets through the drip rail of the trunk.
They work.
They do push the alignment out of shape, just like the redline hood struts do, but I was able to compensate for that by readjusting the trunk. NBD at this time, cause it's all coming back apart at paint time anyway.
Next I'll work on the remote trunk release for the trunk, because I welded the trunk lock hole shut.
So, now that I can do this for the trunk, ill be doing it for the hood as opposed to spending 100.00 for 50 bucks worth of stuff.