Gas Hood Lifters Fitted, Ebay - Sokie Tech Options

[petna]

Well the gas bonnet lifters went in this afternoon. Took about 20 mins because I needed to fiddle with a washer or 2 to get the fit right. I've created a wiki guide on CCUK for the fitting Wiki Entry

They seem to work well. Worth £40 IMO

Here are some pics

Bracket with washer piping


Bracket


Fitted



In place with the bonnet 'popped'


This post has been edited by petna: Oct 24, 2008 - 11:39 AM

[DEATH]

Hell yeah - do they have a version for the GT4 Aluminum hood? It would be the same except the struts themselves would be weaker.

[Jaws4God]

Wow awesome!! Where does it mount on the lower part?

[tomazws]

that looks awesome!

[petna]

it was just the generic g6 one. I suppose you could get weaker struts but not too sure. The lower part mounts on a ball joint which is essentially an M4 bolt which replaces the stock bolt holding the rubber bonet stop. No drilling to do or anything!!! Unbolt old, bolt on new

[zero07]

So once you begin to lift, does your hood rise on its own till its all the way up?

Looks great! By the looks of it you already removed the stock lift support.

This post has been edited by zero07: Oct 24, 2008 - 12:53 PM

[petna]

removed the stock support so it didn't touch my shiney cooling panel lol

Lift it up a couple of feet and it stays level. Lift a bit further and opens up on its own. Same operation as the lifters on my boot

[manphibian]

Looks good mate, i might get round to that some day

[petna]

easy job Luke, get it done

[zero07]

Nice, in black too. Did they come all black including the bracket?

[petna]

all black including the bracket. Had my mucky mits on them before taking the pic. They've been cleaned up now though ha ha. Fitting wasn't perfect but as I say, it was soon sorted with a washer

[manphibian]

easy job Luke, get it done

yeah, but i STILL havn't finished sorting my sideskirts, then i think i might get some rear splitters. The list is endless and expensive!

[petna]

Indeed it is mate, indeed it is. Spending is on hold until I know what my xmas bonus will be. Should be about £1k so plenty of mods to come.

Koyo
Optima
Dynamat Xtreme
0gauge cabling
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[njccmd2002]

post a link of the seller, that looks good, excellent.

[96bluevert]

yes, please link...I might have to get some of these, I loved having them on my Old's.

[petna]

well they are the only bonnet lifters advertised for our cars on ebay

Ebay

[GriffGirl]

Wow that's only like $60 US - not bad!

[BloodyStupidDave...]

well they are the only bonnet lifters advertised for our cars on ebay

Yea, that's the person I purchased mine from also. For anyone considering purchasing beware that I ordered mine on 10th October and still have no delivery and no tracking number. Not saying they are shady - just buyer beware. I'll update if/when they turn up.

[petna]

Mine arrived in about a week so may be worth dropping them an email. They sent me an email when they were shipped and another saying that they should have arrived by now. Indeed they had arrived. Drop them an email

[BloodyStupidDave...]

Mine arrived in about a week so may be worth dropping them an email. They sent me an email when they were shipped and another saying that they should have arrived by now. Indeed they had arrived. Drop them an email

Actually, if you have an email address for them, please could you PM it to me. I've contacted them through eBay but it has been less than 24 hours so they might yet respond. Initially I thought I was just being impatient and put it down to slow shipping (they are in Taiwan - shipments often take upto 10 days from there to the UK).

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Oct 24, 2008 - 5:03 PM

[Nibbe]

Nice upgrade. Ive been planning on doing that also.

[petna]

Can't use them on CF bonnets though... frisp is going to look into lower power rams for the gt4 ally and also CF hoods.

[Fastbird]

Nice!!! Looks like a really slick little kit. I may pick up one of these since the lower holder for our prop strut is broken anyway.

[whatthe]

you rekon it would be worth a shot to get it working on a cf hood?

[BloodyStupidDave...]

you rekon it would be worth a shot to get it working on a cf hood?

Nope. They would be too strong, causing the cf to flex out of shape as you try to close it which could introduce hairline cracks in the resin. You'll want much weaker lifters for CF.

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Oct 25, 2008 - 5:51 AM

[BloodyStupidDave...]

Finally got a tracking number for them and it turns out that Parcelforce attempted to deliver my parcel on Thursday when I was out so dropped it off at my local post office for collection, but failed to put a postcard through my letterbox so I knew nothing about it!

Collected it from the post office this morning and fitted it right away and I can say it looks the dogs doodahs. Best of all, it looks OEM.

If you have a facelift 6th gen there is no need to permanently remove the middle hood rubber, just remove it and give it a light tap with a hammer to break the paint seal between the bracket and bolt. Then replace the bolt with the one supplied in the kit (plus the small washer). I found that the damper bracket for the hood wasn't a perfect fit for our hood bracket so I used the large washer between the hood bracket and the damper bracket, leaving the locking washer unused. Don't overtorque the nuts holding the hood on or you'll likely break something. If you are fearful, then a dab of threadlock will help keep the nut in place.

You can just about get away with this kit for the aluminium gt4 hood, just be gentle when opening and closing. For those of you with CF hoods, I'd suggest asking the supplier whether they could do an identical kit just with weaker lifters. A search for forum threads about weight loss will reveal the differing weights of the c-one, varis, aluminium and steel hoods.

It would have been nice if they included an extra clip - I almost lost one of mine to the engine bay during fitting (they are quite small and fiddly). If you don't have a black car you might want to consider spraying the brackets. Overall a very easy mod to do (difficulty level 1/10, time less than 20 mins). Overall the quality of the kit seems to be high.

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Oct 25, 2008 - 9:26 AM

[petna]

If you have a facelift 6th gen there is no need to permanently remove the middle hood rubber, just remove it and give it a light tap with a hammer to break the pain seal between the bracket and bolt. Then replace the bolt with the one supplied in the kit (plus the small washer). I found that the damper bracket for the hood wasn't a perfect fit for our hood bracket so I used the large washer between the hood bracket and the damper bracket, leaving the locking washer unused. Don't overtorque the nuts holding the hood on or you'll likely break something. If you are fearful, then a dab of threadlock will help keep the nut in place.

Thats EXACTLY what I did

[Random_Stranger]

I've been wondering if they had something like this for our cars....... Now I have to read to make sure they won't hurt my precious GT4 hood.

[vincent_doggy]

Thanks Alex, that will be my next mod!!

[petna]

Thanks Alex, that will be my next mod!!

My next mod is the hood spoiler

[Tigawoods]

looks like i have another small winter mod to add to the list! great job!

[Slick]

Nice! I just ordered mine!

[jimmykay]

I ordered some last month and just got them installed. Merry Christmas to me.

[njccmd2002]

ok, when you close the hood, is it difficult.

any bending of the hood.

Update people, for those that have been using it since october.

[garin]

yeah did you order them off of ebay? i found some from taiwan,i wasn't sure if they were good or not. i also don't really like buying from overseas. i really ant these though.

[jimmykay]

I havent seen any bending at all, opening and closing the hood is easy. Lift it up to about chest high and it will stay still, a little higher and the dampers will open it up for you. closing is the same, let it down to the usual height and just drop it into place. The only thing I've noticed is that the hood doesnt want to "pop" open as easily. when i pull the release in the car, it only pops up about 1/8" - 1/4" instead of the +1". But you can still easily get your hands on it to pull it up.

I bought from alvoturk9000 on 11/14 and they arrived 12/5.

[Sick_Puppy]

Hey guys, reading this here in NZ and these strust look great! I read somewhere that the finish on these tends to corrode a bit though- have any of you guys who've installed these found that with yours? Cheers!

[trdproven]

wanna get those - dampers look so damn long...only because the next closest bolt is still far.

[Fastbird]

For those of you that have this, take a very close look at your hood when you close it, and when it's fully closed. There's two crush point on the bracing of the underside of the hood along the outer edges, and these are very noticable flex points too (my body guy and I were going over this as we decided what to do with my car). If you shut your hood from the forward edge (like anyone normally would), take a close look and see if you're flexing at the mid point of the hood where those crumple points are.

Second question I have is how much tension is on the hood when it's closed? Reason I ask is because those points could weaken over time causing the hood to bulge up if there is too much closed pressure on those struts.

I'm asking these questions for guys that already have had the kit on their car for some time, as I want to know real world results because this is still something I"d like to accomplish.

[3TST]

Bonnet Struts - How To

petna wrote: It would appear everyone is following in my footsteps

Cool and easy mod. to do

This post has been edited by 3TST: Jan 30, 2009 - 12:09 PM

[celica3000]

arrive and installing
nice mod
thanks to share

[jimmykay]

I'll try and answer you as best I can off of memory.

For those of you that have this, take a very close look at your hood when you close it, and when it's fully closed. There's two crush point on the bracing of the underside of the hood along the outer edges, and these are very noticable flex points too (my body guy and I were going over this as we decided what to do with my car). If you shut your hood from the forward edge (like anyone normally would), take a close look and see if you're flexing at the mid point of the hood where those crumple points are.

the only flex point I can remember seeing is right at the end of the hinge. Instead of resting most of the weight on the prop rod, it now has all of the weight on the hinges.

Second question I have is how much tension is on the hood when it's closed? Reason I ask is because those points could weaken over time causing the hood to bulge up if there is too much closed pressure on those struts.

upon closing, the dampers close with little added force. and actually, when you have almost closed the hood, the line of action on the damper crosses the hinge point. this takes all of the weight off of the hood and if anything, it applies a small amount of downforce on the hood, effectively holding it closed. I have noticed that when I pop my hood, it only pops up about 1/4" instead of the 3/4" - 1" that it used to pop up.

[djseven]

does any1 knows if theres any difference on the hood between a 94 and 96 model? cus that ebaystore says it wont fit my 94 celi!

[trdproven]

Hate to bring this back up, but my bracket tends to pivot when opening and closing. It does this because unlike other brackets for cars there is not piece on the bracket that grabs on anything besides a bolt that holds it down and pivots around. It would make sense if it held on both bolts. How did others do theirs without the pivot motion and scratching the paint as the strut changes position?

[chacha]

picture please...

[trdproven]

its just where the bolt is at, the struts are very strong, this means a little bolt won't be able to hold this bracket in place, the bracket is in the mercy of the stronger strut.

[azn87]

can u take a picture and show what u mean

[ZGear]

its just where the bolt is at, the struts are very strong, this means a little bolt won't be able to hold this bracket in place, the bracket is in the mercy of the stronger strut.

If you're talking about the bracket attached to the hood, I angled it towards the windshield and gunned it tight. You will have to experiment with it to see how it closes and not rub on the fender liner. Otherwise another wise, but long solution would be to file the rough edge round.