Yes, I believe it would be you.
You got me thinking. Normally I'd concidered the gas struts for
opening the hood, as in having enough power to do the job themselves.
But if one only had them work as boosters, the forces they would
impart onto the sheetmetal bonnet could be significantly less. I've
worried about bending the bonnet from the force of gas struts, so I
hadn't done it. But if I just used them as boosters, I wouldn't be as
concerned.
Having "power assist" would also help reduce the damage my bonnet
is already experiencing from my opening it alone. I too have a flexy
bonnet. Due to rust damage on the front reinforcement lip mostly.
This flexing is of course doing more damage, as well as stressing my
hinges and support tubes. With a set of "boosters", the bonnet
would be raised more uniformly, and hence less stress and damage
would be imparted on it.
Two alternatives to the standard mounting of gas struts onto the
inner fender walls have my curiosity. One would be to attach the
gas struts to the tube frame instead of the inner fender. The tube
frame is a good bit better able to deal with the forces imo. Another
idea is to use a piano wire spring at the bonnet pivots. Kinda like the
way the spring works a mouse trap or rat trap. Those are just some
ruminations.
>>> Dave Chu <dave@ece.concordia.ca> 10/18 1:52 PM >>>
Would that be me? Here are pictures of my Honda civic strut set up.
This one is the bracket that I made to keep the bonnet up.
http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/brace.jpg
Here are some shots of how the strut on the passenger side is mounted.
http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/left1.jpg
http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/left2.jpg
http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/left3.jpg
These struts are not actually strong enought to keep the bonnet up by
themselfs but it makes openning it easier.
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