Gas Shocks for Hood Alignment?

[metros]

I'm using the ZDB Motorsports hood hinges with the updated front end. I'm finding that there is so much flex in the hood that when I lower the hood it doesn't always go straight to where it fits in perfectly. This is after I have already bonded 4 strips of aluminum to the hood to stiffen it up, which did help some.

My thought is to use gas hinges (1 driver side and 1 passenger side) in order to compensate. This would come with the added bonus of propping the hood in a stable manner when it's opened. Then when closing it would be guided by the gas shocks. Has anyone else done this? Any ideas or thoughts?

[07FIREBLADE]

I know Craig had some design to add the gas struts but the cost was too high i believe. I was thinking of doing something similar but haven't found anything that I liked yet. I'm very interested as I'm having the same problem.

[RM1SepEx]

gas hinges are not needed as it's so light and flimsy. The solution is to have a hood with a liner that has 3D features so it doesn't flex so much

[phil1734]

You would need to significantly reinforce and stiffen the hood where you attach the springs or it'll just flex anyway and still not line up.

And I would seriously doubt that an air spring would have the ability to locate something as tightly as it sounds like you want.

[Mechie3]

If you look at the hood hinges, most of them have an extra hole near the 1/2" shoulder bolt. The latest versions don't have the hole but still have a bump out where the hole can be added(taking out the hole saved $5/part since it had to be drilled and not laser cut). The original idea was to use a gas strut to hold it open and, when closed, it passes the toggle point and pulls it down a little bit. I couldn't find miniature shocks for less than $50 ea.

[07FIREBLADE]

What size where the miniature shocks that you were looking for?

[metros]

Any more details that you can provide would be great!

[Mechie3]

http://www.indgassprings.com/micro-gas-spring.html#choose-fitting

Part number is 4-1.5-5.11

I chose those because I have a bag of 6 of them I salvaged from the trash.