Since I switched to a Fiberglass/Carbon Fiber (Hybrid) hood I have needed to use a hood prop to hold the hood up. The stock hood struts have been known to cause the “lightweight” hoods to bend up where the hood strut connects to the hood.
I found this post in February of last year by braincrater who used NRG Innovations Nissan 370Z / 350Z low pressure hood shocks. So in February of 2025 I ordered the NRG HD-300CF hood struts for about $190 shipped. The company alerted me they were special order and they would get them as soon as possible… A few months went by and I reached out and they gave me a new date, a few months went by and the same story. Finally I reached out a few weeks ago and they once again said the company has them listed as June now… they immediately offered a refund if I wanted.
I began the search for those hood struts online to see if anyone had them in stock. I reached out to many companies that listed them as “in stock” but every one of them said they were not and they were a special order.
Ultimately I decided I could figure this out myself and make them cheaper and asked for a refund [which the company sent immediately].
So to start off with the fender bolt thread is M6x1 and I wanted to stick with that thread for the whole install. The hood strut balls seem to be m10 for the most part, and I also decided to stick with that size. The hood fully open between the two points was right around 12″ long, and then closed it appeared to be about 9″. I didn’t find anything exactly that size, but there were plenty of 8-12″ options out there. While I wanted the “least” amount of strength in the gas pistons as I could get away with, I decided to order 30#, 50#, and 60# versions of them as they were fairly cheap.
12″ Gas Shocks / struts ( 30#, 50#, 60#)
I started out by drilling holes in the hood hinge. The key to this is it puts pressure on the hinge instead of the hood itself. This by itself should prevent the bowing a little bit. I didn’t have a specific measurement for where this would be, but I tried to make it the same with enough “meat” on all sides of the hood.
The M6x1 10m balls that I ordered were a little too long, so I had to cut them down by about 1/4″ but they fit great once I did that.
The strut end where it connects to the fender needed a little bit of modifications so that it could extend beyond it’s typical range. I used a small Dremel to sand out the edge to give it more range of motion. They still clip in properly and I couldn’t pull them out without releasing the clip.
The finished product! A hood that stays up without a hood prop!
Since I bought several of them here’s my feedback on each weight:
-30lbs – Way too weak, couldn’t hold the hood up at all.
-50lbs -Right about equilibrium for the SEIBON DVII hood. It wouldn’t really “lift” the hood until it was about 80% up. It wouldn’t hold any “work lights” without falling.
-60lbs – Has just enough lifting to hold my “work lights”. Still doesn’t lift the hood until it’s about 60-70% way up.
Overall I decided to stick with the the 60lb ones. Not a bad project that really was easy to do. The NRG ones may have looked nicer (being CF, or having a CF sticker I don’t know) but this was only $30 versus $190… I just wish I did this a year ago…