Hood struts?

I've designed gas spring hood struts for cars I've owned....sponsered by a company called "Stabulis"..the lastest being my 2001 Honda Civic Coupe. I plan on designing my P5 as well, just haven't had time..Peace!
 
Here is a picture of that design
 

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also www.lokar.com is a friends business that he has made Billit aliminum adjustable prop rods that are pretty much universal and its neat since they have many differant hight settings so for a better look you can have it propped up 2, 4, 6, inches and higher ..
 
I like the gas shock setup for my Subaru SVX, and noticed that the one you set up for the Civic is similar in style, assuming there's one rod on either side. Any idea how much this would cost if you could put together a kit? Just curious. =)

- Eddie
 
You can buy the struts from AutoZone, Pep Boys, etc for < $40 but you need to figure out how to mount them. It's not that hard, but I was just seeing if someone had already done it, save me from making mistakes others might have already made.

If there was a kit, I'd be all for that.
 
As a structural engineer, it is easy to just overlook the obvious and go get just any strut...but what many do not realize is the long term possible damage should the wrong gas spring and mounting brackets not be the proper materials and products once installed if you open and close your hood alot. The angle, newton loadings, gas spring quality, and length are all important. Now, no it isn't rocket science design work by no means, but if your not careful you can damage your hood. Our P5's are not to user friendly for this mod, as I already been scrathing my head. For one, there isn't a whole lot of room for the gas spring to compress and hide away properly. My designs are geared to look as OEM as possible too, which I've achieved for the most part. I'll take a harder look this weekend and see if I can design or start something...Peace!
 
Well, I just checked on my Protege and my SVX and compared for a bit. (DAAAAMN the SVX's hood is heavy!) Looks like there should be enough room and mounting spots to install a set of struts, but I know the style on my SVX would probably be too strong (From the looks of it, it was two 60 lb struts), so I'm gonna keep looking, and grab some 90 degree angle aluminum to start playing with mount points. =) Even if just for laughs. Hehee.

- Eddie
 
The design for my 2001 civic was 300N each or about 68 pounds..where my civic's hood weight was about 25 pounds. It wasn't heavy at all. The gas springs are mounted at about a 45 degree angle for proper collapse. Our P5 hoods are very heavy, even in comparison to many vehicles. So assuming the approximately same mounting angle..a 60 pound gas spring will not work.......maybe something more like 75-100 pounds per spring...but I'll toy around with it as well and use some more parts given to me by the sponsered company..Peace!
 
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