Gas Struts/Springs For Hood/Bonnet

[lotos]

Committed To Buy: (not to exceed $75 USD plus shipping and taxes)

1. Dico
2. Pinky
3. Cliff
4. Elanlover (brackets only as I have the springs installed)
5. whippit
6.esprit888 (What the hell, hood needs painting anyway )
7.jerome marchand
8.Ratman
9. lotos

[Elanlover]

Just back from vacation and I will be removing my sloppy lower bracket and sending it off to the company I'm dealing with Monday so they can start fabricating a better version of them. I'll let you know when they are ready and for probaly the next week this group buy will be open after which I will close it.

[Elanlover]

All the parts are now at the company I'm dealing with and the brackets have been sent off to the laser cutter to be measured and diagramed for approval before manufacturing starts. Should get a final design to approve along with the final costs by mid next week.

[Dico]

Good stuff

[Elanlover]

Here's the latest update. The brackets are being laser cut and zinc washed this week and next and probably ready by end of next week. I am having a complete set of brackets and springs sent to me for test fitting after which, if all goes well, orders can be placed. You'll place your orders directly with the supplier and they will ship out to you directly. If your organizing a sub group, as in to the UK (Dave), then you can place an order for all of them which will ship en mass and you can redistribute locally. Of course that means someone will need to cover the whole cost up front. That's still around the $75 mark give or take a few bucks plus any applicable taxes, duties and customs when they land in your country and shipping.

I'll post pics and instructions for all when I install the test kit.

[dapinky]

as it's only 3 or 4 sets to come to the UK, I can fund that and have 1 parcel sent here - we can sort out the distribution and money later (unless anyone specifically wants to order direct).

[niall]

1. Dico
2. Pinky
3. Cliff
4. Elanlover (brackets only as I have the springs installed)
5. whippit
6.esprit888 (What the hell, hood needs painting anyway )
7.jerome marchand
8.Ratman
9. Niall

[Dico]

Nice one Mr P and EL.

[lotos]

9. Niall

Hey, you took my spot!


1. Dico
2. Pinky
3. Cliff
4. Elanlover (brackets only as I have the springs installed)
5. whippit
6.esprit888 (What the hell, hood needs painting anyway )
7.jerome marchand
8.Ratman
9. lotos
10. Niall

[GeoffSmith]

as it's only 3 or 4 sets to come to the UK, I can fund that and have 1 parcel sent here - we can sort out the distribution and money later (unless anyone specifically wants to order direct).

Shame nobody from the UK is dropping in on Blair in July.....

[Elanlover]

I didn't think you'd have room in that container cube you're bringing back from North America. Isn't it going to be full of maple syrup?????

[dapinky]

Isn't it going to be full of maple syrup?????

It had better be - i missed out on your last trip to Hethel, despite dropping big hints to Geoff who was keeping it well hidden!!!


In all honesty, if Geoff has got the room, it could be the start of a plan, but if not, then i'll take the box here.

(The maple syrup can definately come via Geoff though )

[Elanlover]

Here's the latest:

Should be getting my test fit kit today or tomorrow which I will dutifully install when it arrives. If all goes well the brackets will go out for zinc treatment. Hopefully, they would be ready for shipment next week.

[cliff]

Nice one. thanks

[Elanlover]

Brackets fit well and look good. They are going out to be zinc'd this week and will be ready for shipping by mid next week. You'll be able to order from the company who will ship to you directly. Obviously, since they've made the kits up on good faith, it would be advisable to place your order immediately after I post the details. I'll work on a write up (won't be a long one as they're pretty easy to install) and post it here shortly.

[dapinky]

Cracking job, Blair

Can i confirm that orders are to be placed individually for the UK, or is a single shipment better for them?

[Elanlover]

Dave, I think you can do it any way you want. They'll send them out individually or as one package. Its really up to you guys how you want to handle it and if you think there's some savings (as there likely will be) to sending them over as one lot.

Blair

[cliff]

Mine will be shipped to Germany so if anyone else is in the area, I am happy to order more than one set and send them on.

[Elanlover]

Ok folks, I have the finished kit installed and it works just fine. Here's the install instructions below with pics.



First off, your kit will include 2x40lbs gas springs, 2 lower (handed for left and right) mounting brackets and 2 (unhanded) upper brackets as per the pic.

253.JPG (113.93 KiB) Viewed 6950 times

You'll need the appropriate tools to remove the bolts holding the upper and lower hood/bonnet hinge plates in place, some grease and about an hour of your time. Now, open the hood, put the hood prop in place and stand back to have a look at the last time you'll need to do that. We'll start with the upper mounts first.

Once you start removing or loosening screws the hood is likely to shift. So, to reduce the chances of this happening its best if you remove one screw first, fit it over the upper bracket, reattach the screw and tighten it enough that you can still move the bracket around. Then, while holding the hood in plce to prevent too much shifting, remove the other screw, slide the bracket into place, reattach the screw and tighten both. The bracket should have the ball stud pointing OUTWARDS to the outside of the car. Repeat on the other side as per the pics below.

254.JPG (78.87 KiB) Viewed 6950 times

255.JPG (75.57 KiB) Viewed 6950 times

That was easy and done in about 10 minutes I would guess. Wondering where the other 50 minutes comes in? Right here.

Let's install the lower brackets. The two screws holding the lower hinge plate in place attach to a hidden plate on the underside of the bodywork accessible when the wheel arch is removed. I don't know if this plate is fixed in place and, over time, has become loose or if it was never glued on in the first place. But, there's an excellent chance that when you start removing these screws that plate will fall off and lodge itself somewhere behind the liner. In my case one side fell off but the other side did not. Cross your fingers when you remove these - if they don't fall off you'll save yourself 25 minutes removing the wheels and liners then replacing them. When you remove the rear bolts (the ones with the rubber stoppers on the ends) take a look to see how high they sit now. You'll need to lower them slightly by the thickness of the lower ball mounting plate when reinstalling them.

While installing these brackets I came across a small problem. Originally, these brackets were meant to slide under the lower hinge plate. However, the metal plate used to build these brackets is thicker (about double) than the prototype I made so when I installed them I noticed that the hood sat up a tiny bit more than flush. Not noticeable to anyone other than the owner (who knows their car so well) of course. And, it seemed to be mostly on one side which was odd. With these cars being hand built I suppose anything is possible. But, I remounted them on top of the hinge plates which helped. Of course, it could all be due to not aligning the hood (which we'lll get to later) properly which I'll revisit..................some day. So, take your pick on which side of the hinge plate you want to mount them. I left them on top (pics show them on the bottom though) after bending the metal a bit in a vise to more closely follow the contour of the body work but bottom could easily work for you.

256.JPG (57 KiB) Viewed 6950 times

Once the brackets are in place you need to grease your balls. Given that this is a "family oriented" site I will refrain from providing detailed instruction on this section but will assume that you all know how to do this well enough. I used vaseline but I suppose any grease might do. You don't need much - just enough to let the balls move freely in their sockets - if you know what I mean. And no, this is NOT where the other 20 minutes is lost. I suspect most of you only need a couple of minutes for this procedure. After you've lubed your balls take the spring and compress it a few times by hand just to "break the seal" which will make it a bit easier to install completely later on. Then, attach the piston end to the upper sockets ONLY. Do not attach the bottom sockets yet. The piston end should be attached to the upper ball with the rod end being attached to the bottom ball later. Once done, take this time to align your hood properly and carefully by closing it until the latch catches. Whatever you do DO NOT completely close the hood/bonnnet (pushed all the way down and locked into place) until you've aligned the hood correctly as it might be very difficult to pop the hood again. Yes, this is the voice of experience talking.

When your hood/bonnet is aligned attach the spring to the lower socket. This will be a bit difficult as you'll need to compress the spring to get it to fit over the ball and that's not easy to do. It will work though. Hopefully, you've compressed the spring before hand as suggested to make it easier. Park the prop rod (I'd leave it installed though - just in case) and move the hood up and down to your heart's content. Hopefully, it will look like this when done.

259.JPG (57.8 KiB) Viewed 6950 times

I'll post all the ordering information very shortly and will, of course, answer any questions you may have about the install.

[Elanlover]

To place your order you can call or e-mail as per below:

Nolan Fehr
LS Technologies
303 103rd Street
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
S7N 1Y9

1-866 427 4659
(306) 683-5000 (if the 800 number doesn't work in your area)
info (at) lstechnologies.ca

The cost is $75 CDN plus shipping and any applicable taxes/duties. Operators are standing by...............