Hood struts on , money well spent!

[Mikie]

I just finished installing my mustangs unlimited hood struts. All I can say is that its the best $78 spent on blue thunder so far. When opening the hood now I dont have to worry about the wind blowing the prop rod off at the shows.

It is a high quality kit, but they send screws for both the hood and the inner fender applications. We ditched the screws up on the underside of the fiberglass hood and chose to go with pop rivets. This was because my hood is fiberglass and we knew that the screws had a better chance of stripping out.

I will get some pics up shortly today so stay tuned.

 

[5.0Droptop]

Nice. The first time I saw these installed I belive it was on Mansonozz's Sonic Cherry.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I really wanna do this as well, but i wanna try to get away with one strong prop on one side if possible since even my steel hood is pretty light.


When you open your hood now, does it come up on its own like some hatch back cars do? I know you still have to push the lock lever aside but after that do you still need to do any lifting or does it just rise up?

 

[Mikie]

I really wanna do this as well, but i wanna try to get away with one strong prop on one side if possible since even my steel hood is pretty light.


When you open your hood now, does it come up on its own like some hatch back cars do? I know you still have to push the lock lever aside but after that do you still need to do any lifting or does it just rise up?

It just rises up like the hatch.

 

[Mikie]

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[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Do you think you could swap out one of those struts with one that is stronger so that 1 does the job of 2?

 

[wythors]

I really wanna do this as well, but i wanna try to get away with one strong prop on one side if possible since even my steel hood is pretty light.

I pretty sure that if you only use one strut, you're going to tweak your hood in pretty short order due to the offset load when you close it. The struts are quite strong and a lightweight piece is going to flex rather badly.

I installed a set of Redline Tuning struts on The Wife's car a few years back and will do a set on the 'vert before too long.

 

[Ozz]

That'd be pretty goofy if you hit the hood release and the hood flew up because of these

Are those by Redline Tuning? I know they CAME from Mustangs Unlimited but obviously they don't mfr their own parts. I put the Redline Tuning Elite ones on mine, one of the best things I ever did. I love them!

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I pretty sure that if you only use one strut, you're going to tweak your hood in pretty short order due to the offset load when you close it. The struts are quite strong and a lightweight piece is going to flex rather badly.

I installed a set of Redline Tuning struts on The Wife's car a few years back and will do a set on the 'vert before too long.

Yeah i suppose that's true. I just thought less would be more ya know?

 

[Mikie]

That'd be pretty goofy if you hit the hood release and the hood flew up because of these

Are those by Redline Tuning? I know they CAME from Mustangs Unlimited but obviously they don't mfr their own parts. I put the Redline Tuning Elite ones on mine, one of the best things I ever did. I love them!

I just went out and wrote down the part numbers and cross referrenced them.
They are RLT struts. When you pull the hood release in the car it pops, but stays down. You have to lift up about 1/4 of the way before it starts lifting on its own.

 

[Ozz]

I know, I have them too. I was responding to the guy who asked if they pop the hood up automatically.

 

[Mikie]

oh cool.
I believe my next mod will be ditching the pull cable and doing stainless hood pins, but I need to do my research before just buying them.

Any opinions on fords SS pins? or any type pins?

Thanks

 

[Ozz]

No experience but I'd definitely recommend leaving the J-hook in place if/when you get them. Way too many hoods around here have gone flying up for one reason or another when pins were the only thing holding them on.

 

[Tstang90]

I agree the hood struts are awesome..No more blown away hoods at the shows or cruise nights either. Never happened to me but my buddies cowl,guage and hood was mangled from a nice gust of wind one day...Very good and cost effective purchase.
And no more hood bar in the way when you work on the car.