The use of our QuickLIFT product... Your hood will close just as it always does. You will still need to drop the hood from the same height. All gas-spring forces are parallel to the hood and are providing no lift at low lift heights. However, once you begin to open your hood with the QuickLIFT installed, the hood will become light enough to lift itself and will take over mid-way.
Regarding the hardware - we recommend using a decent rivet gun. We even spec out a model number for Sears brand riviter in all of our manuals, though this one is not required. The only difference between them is the force that they can handle before breaking. Steel rivets are very strong and require more force than most very cheap aluminum riviters can handle. Also, the screws we use in our QuickLIFTs are hardened steel - tighten away and nothing will move if you follow the instructions.
Regarding the difficulty of closing SN95 hoods - I hate to drop my hood from 3 ft up and hear it slam, so I found that gently bringing it down and letting it latch, then lifting it to the point where the latch catches (about 6" up) and firmly pushing down with two hands works. Just another 2 cents worth...
I installed the kit on my car awhile ago. The install is so easy, should only take 15 min. Its also SO much better then the stock prop rod. This kit should come on our cars stock. Check out the link in my sig for pictures.