Phenoms Howtos : Gas hood struts or lifts for mk2 Scirocco

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for...

PHENOMS GAS HOOD STRUT HOWTO!

I got a set of gas hood struts from Black Forest Industries back in August, but I was pretty nervous about doing the install. the horror stories I have heard about the struts bending the hood where they mount up have certainly been on my mind.
http://yhst-1918367471896.stor....html

I spent a lot of time considering ways to reinforce the hood where the strut would mount up to prevent it from flexing, bending, denting, and so on, but most things involved welding and painting or other ugliness.

So I chatted with TooClutchVW about the pictures he posted of his friends rocco and got a better idea of how he did it. I wanted to hear from the horses mouth whether the struts were going to wreck the hood or not. when he said his was working just fine, I decided I would just go for it.

here are some pics to get you started...
I decided to fasten to the hood in a place that seemed to have the most structural rigidity.

I got myself a metric tap indenting on drilling and tapping the hood for the mount. the metal proved to be far too thin to thread, so I knew I would have to put a nut on the back but the nearest hole from the mount point was a few inches away, and at a funny angle.

my clever solution for that was to tape the nut and a lock washer onto the end of a stick.

I was able to align the nut and washer with the hole and then thread in the screw. I cranked this up really tight so it would have the best likelihood of holding on with all the pressure on it.

you can see here where I was trying to tap the hole for the screw. utterly pointless, so please skip that step.

the important thing here is that you put a big fat washer on the back and snug it up really tight. you will have to take your fender skirts out for this step if you dont have them out already.

here you can see where the ball is mounted better.
(Note: I think this is too close, and it should probably be full inch further out. see comments below)

and the top mount is 11 inches from the corner/tip of the hood.

and so on...

just having one strut on was enough to hold the hood up, but it sagged on the passenger side and looked sketchy. so I just repeated the installation for the other side. took me about ten minutes.

drilled the hole, taped washer and nut to the stick...

lined up the nut with the hole...

and thats it. all done.

any questions?


Modified by JonnyPhenomenon at 1:24 AM 9-23-2009

[DrFraserCrane]

awesomeness as always

[Iroczgirl]

That's absolutely amazing!! I bet these will be popping up everywhere now! I know I'll be installing a set

[Lord_Verminaard]

Schweet! Thanks man!!

Brendan

[veetarded]

Quote, originally posted by JonnyPhenomenon »

I was able to align the nut and washer with the hole and then thread in the screw. I cranked this up really tight so it would have the best likelihood of holding on with all the pressure on it.

Loctite is your friend here. Good write-up Jonny.

[scirocco*joe]

Finally I can install that set that has been in my basement for 2 years. Thanks, Jonny.

[JonnyPhenomenon]

before anyone runs out and grabs a drill, I need to update. I have detected some bending on the metal where I mounted the top anchor.
it is not pushing up like I thought it might, but rather when the hood is closed its trying to push the anchor rearward. I didnt put a washer between the hood and the anchor because I thought it would make it stick out too far. and it looks like that may have been a mistake. I'm going to try to take it out and get a washer in there to stabilize it some. this should be FUN.

I will update soon..

p.s. learn from my mistakes. since making them all yourself is just silly...

[jrgrinder]

i don't know what to say.

[California Special]

Excellant !!

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Hokay, so I pulled the mounts off the hood and reinstalled them with a washer between the stud and the hood. that should spread the force out a little bit and give it some strength. (yes, at 1am) I'll keep an eye on it and post as needed.

In order to get the nut off the back without losing it in the hood, I taped a magnet to a piece of electrical wire. worked great!

in regards to a slightly different detail, I wanted to mention that when I installed the struts I mounted them in a way that would make my hood stand way up. even higher up than the stock prop rod does.

I didnt have a "spare rocco" to use as a guinnea pig, so I pretty much had to just take a guess and bolt it up and hope for the best. the problem with this is that the struts are almost fully compressed when the hood is closed, and then the angle of the socket on the bottom is maxed right out. almost so far that Im afraid it will pop off.

so if I were to do it again, I would move the bottom stud further out, by probably a whole inch. it would mean a lower hood when opened, but it would also mean slightly les strain on the top bolt from the compression of the strut, and less strain on the bottom socket from the extreme angle.

I apologize for being so wordy. I just want to be perfectly clear...

Modified by JonnyPhenomenon at 1:25 AM 9-23-2009

[scirocco*joe]

By "bottom" I assume you mean the strut mount on the fender? I'll then assume that "top" means the strut mount on the hood?

[TooClutchVW]

nice work as always. Glad I could help. Just curious but why didnt you use the fender bolts instead of tapping a new hole??

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Quote, originally posted by scirocco*joe »

By "bottom" I assume you mean the strut mount on the fender? I'll then assume that "top" means the strut mount on the hood?

Yup.

Quote, originally posted by TooClutchVW »

nice work as always. Glad I could help. Just curious but why didnt you use the fender bolts instead of tapping a new hole??

because the fender bolt hole wasnt anywhere near where I needed to mount the strut.

maybe the ones I have are a different length than the ones your friend used?

[TooClutchVW]

maybe, he has WRD units. Glad I could help

[Beakersloco]

Thats very nice!

[mcdecontrol]

i love this. looked so good at h2o

[Beakersloco]

Where did you get thost strut tower covers ... I like.

[JonnyPhenomenon]

I made em

check out the video here...
http://www.angrymods.com/proje...S.wmv

the build thread here...
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4274286

Modified by JonnyPhenomenon at 2:20 PM 10-19-2009

[JonnyPhenomenon]

update on the hood struts:

after a few months of hibernation, the mounting studs seem to be holding fast. no more bending at all.

[terboh]

Ive been wanting to do this for some time now. Thanks for the write up

[falcon2000aj]

Sweetness!! Anyone tried this on a mk1?

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Quote, originally posted by falcon2000aj »

Sweetness!! Anyone tried this on a mk1?

actually, I think its easier on a mk1 since there are better places to mount them this diy was targeted to the mk2 owners who dont have that luxury.

[TooClutchVW]

hood still holding up ok with the weight and all??

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Quote, originally posted by TooClutchVW »

hood still holding up ok with the weight and all??

aside from the bike that landed on the hood, the struts are holding up just fine.

[Rays-Rocco]

Nice scirocco!
Why didn't you use one of the hood bolts for the top bolt? I would think that bending would be less likely at that point.

[16volt]

Thats a fantastic writeup.

[Monster8V]

I was going to recomend using the stock hood bolt location as its somewhat reinforced in that area VS the thin sheet metal area you drilled thru. The only additional mod is a notch of the weather stripping.

That location is even better on a MK-I

(Ive had the hood lifts on both.)

Quote, originally posted by JonnyPhenomenon »

before anyone runs out and grabs a drill, I need to update. I have detected some bending on the metal where I mounted the top anchor. it is not pushing up like I thought it might, but rather when the hood is closed its trying to push the anchor rearward. I didnt put a washer between the hood and the anchor because I thought it would make it stick out too far. and it looks like that may have been a mistake. I'm going to try to take it out and get a washer in there to stabilize it some. this should be FUN. I will update soon..

[JonnyPhenomenon]

Quote, originally posted by Rays-Rocco »

Nice scirocco! Why didn't you use one of the hood bolts for the top bolt? I would think that bending would be less likely at that point.

the bolt holes aren't anywhere near the gutters where I wanted to mount the struts. there really isn't any good place to put them on the mk2. the mk1's have bolt holes over there so its possible that way, but not the mk2.

Quote, originally posted by 16volt »

That's a fantastic writeup.

thanks

Quote, originally posted by Monster8V »

I was going to recommend using the stock hood bolt location as its somewhat reinforced in that area VS the thin sheet metal area you drilled thru. The only additional mod is a notch of the weather stripping. That location is even better on a MK-I (Ive had the hood lifts on both.)

I think that mounting them in the engine bay with the cut rain tray is not as attractive as keeping them in the gutter. hence why I installed them where I did.

as I said in my original post, there was some bending before I took them out an added more washers. since I have added the washers the bending has stopped. I said later on that if I had moved the mounting points on the body a little bit farther forward, that there would be less stress on them when the hood was fully closed. where they are now they are fully compressed when the hood is closed, and there is a ton of force on that little screw.

if I had mounted them an 1" to 1.5" further forward, this stress would have been a lot less. but when I am using my own car is the guinnea pig, I don't get to just drill more holes when I don't like where they were at first..

so to summarize, the top mounting points are fine, but the bottom mounting points should be moved further forward so they put less stress on the hood when it is closed.


Modified by JonnyPhenomenon at 4:20 PM 3-5-2010