Looking for front hood lift struts
- Thread starter viperpartsguy
- Start date
Tomcat
GT Owner
Ya thanks looking for something aftermarket that looks factory. The cooltechs are great but don’t have the factory look.
Tomcat
GT Owner
Roger that...my GT has 49,000 miles (and I have (had) a Pantera for 35 years) so I am not that focused on OEM.
Shark01
GT Owner
dr914
GT Owner
I actually bought a set of four from my Ford dealer about a year ago. Have not installed them though had to give my vehicle id number though
white out
GT Owner
- Jun 22, 2011
- 148
Word of caution on OE struts, some are DOA, I had the failure of new struts on first use. While I am not a huge fan of swapping the hardware for the Cooltech, I have run them on my 2 cars and happy with their performance.
Shark01
GT Owner
While I ended up with a bad batch at first, requiring my to pay double for install I am happy with the Cooltech performance.
PeteK
GT Owner
We offer the gas struts for the front bonnet as well as the rear clamshell. We have these custom made. For both sets we have pressure (lifting power) the same spec as OEM. Obviously, the clamshell struts are a LOT more powerful than the fronts. They will most definitely feel stronger to you because aging struts have a slow death - making it hard for you to detect until they just don't work.
The fronts go right on. OEM uses a 6mm ball and an 8mm ball - arguably to prevent the assembly guys from installing them upside down. Ford has the same ball arrangement for the rear... but the rears are a lot more powerful and they use a larger/stronger diameter rod. Nowhere in the aftermarket have I found a smallish 6mm ball end for this size rod diameter. So, we convert the rear to a 10mm. More importantly, we insisted that the rear clamshell have the same or fractionally greater opening than OEM - hence we have a small offset in the ball placement to achieve this. The aforementioned struts from O'rielly's LOOK very similar to OEM - maybe only a 1/4" or so shorter. But this shorter strut decreases clamshell opening by ~3". It is very noticeable.
Ask anyone, if you want to fix the erection problem, you don't want to sacrifice length to get there! LOL
The fronts go right on. OEM uses a 6mm ball and an 8mm ball - arguably to prevent the assembly guys from installing them upside down. Ford has the same ball arrangement for the rear... but the rears are a lot more powerful and they use a larger/stronger diameter rod. Nowhere in the aftermarket have I found a smallish 6mm ball end for this size rod diameter. So, we convert the rear to a 10mm. More importantly, we insisted that the rear clamshell have the same or fractionally greater opening than OEM - hence we have a small offset in the ball placement to achieve this. The aforementioned struts from O'rielly's LOOK very similar to OEM - maybe only a 1/4" or so shorter. But this shorter strut decreases clamshell opening by ~3". It is very noticeable.
Ask anyone, if you want to fix the erection problem, you don't want to sacrifice length to get there! LOL
You can definitely find OEM-style or aftermarket hood lift struts elsewhere — I actually know Hex Autoparts online store that sells front hood lift struts with solid quality and pricing. You can try it.
