Fitting bonnet gas struts

[ET_in_black]

Hi All,
As part of the ongoing process of de-cluttering my engine bay, this weekend I fitted some gas struts to the bonnet.

After scouring the local scrapyard for something suitable, I settled on a pair of tailgate struts from a Fiat Cinquecento for a tenner. These are about 13" long when closed, and 22" long when opened.

Here's a couple of general views of how they look:



At the top end I welded the edges of the cross-member to the underside of the bonnet for extra strength: (I need to re-paint the car sometime anyway so I wasn't bothered about the welding damaging the paint on the top of the bonnet. And excuse the welding! I'm a bit out of practice ...):


Bottom end goes here:


And here's a shot of the bonnet open. As you can see it opens much wider, which helps with general engine bay access:


When you open the bonnet, then about half-way up the struts kick in and lift it the rest of the way, and it stays up very solidly. And not too much effort to close it again.
All in all, a very simple and satisfying little job.

Ed.

[MarkyB]

What is stopping it opening further, is it resting on the wipers?

[chrisryder]

What is stopping it opening further, is it resting on the wipers?

It appears to be getting quite close to the visor.

[ET_in_black]

It stops opening when it reaches full extension on the struts.
I measured/fitted the struts so that they reach full extension when the bonnet is about 1" away from the sunvisor; this way I get maximum opening/engine bay accessibility. And the edge of the bonnet is still well clear of any contact with the windscreen wipers or windscreen.
Ed.

[simmitc]

If you ever have to work on the engine when it's raining, then you'll regret having that wide opening instead of the umbrella on the standard arrangement

[bmcecosse]

But you'll be glad when you stand up and DON'T bump your head!

[les]

Those corners really hurt