hey guys, ive seen this done on a couple mustangs, but i want to take it to the Z, the hood, it uses a spring to hold open when you open it up, real pain in the *** to replace at times, well i want to remove the springs and replace them with hydrolic struts like on the back hatch
anyone ever seen this done? if so what are the measurements and strut sizes i should use?
any help would be great, thanks

Zac

 

The Z31's have the hood struts, but the hood also opens from the front, not the rear like ours do. I personally haven't seen anyone do it, but you could probably use the same strut from a Z31 and weld a reciever to the hood and to each 1/4 panel or the radiator support.

The only problem that I see is that a 280ZX hood is much lighter than a Z31 hood. The struts could be too strong for the application. Also, fitting the struts where they won't interfere with the hood closing might be a real pain in the ***. If you do alot of work yourself, the struts might also interfere with accesibility to certain motor parts.

Just something to think about.

 

If the Z31 struts are too strong, perhaps he could just use 1, instead of 2. Still, I really like how smoothly our 280ZX hoods open and close just the way they are.

 

well its not that i dont like the way it works now, i just wanted somethin a bit stronger than the springs, and somethin that looked a little more trick