Scorp. Lid Lifts

[davidb]

Yo Will. How 'bout some quickie digi pics of your hydraulic struts?
Ones that lift your engine lid. Or anyone else for that matter.
I'm attacking mine now. Test fitting some AutoZone "MIGHTY
LIFT!" struts for starters. My prime interest is you said you had
two + their 4 attatchment points. Me so curious. Thanks.

[Will]

OK, here's a dirty sketch- the brackets are misdrawn, the 10mm ball is on the other side (outside), I drew it on the inside because I was trying to go from memory. Again, the struts fit OUTSIDE the brackets.

[davidb]

Thanks. I'm trying to make sense of the drawing.

[Will]

More details:

The part at the top of the drawing is the bracket that attaches to the engine lid of the car, it forms a brace between the ribs on the underside of the engine lid. It is cut from aluminum channel. One side is cut to an angled profile leaving two "ears" which are bent as shown. This bend is to wrap around the ribs on the engine lid. It is secured with screws through these tabs. The bottom of the bracket has a notch for the quick-disconnect assembly shown below.

The quick disconnect assembly consists of two plates that sandwich the strut mounting brackets between them, and through which a knob is fitted. The front plate, which sits inside of the "L" section of the lid bracket, is 4-3/4" x 2" and made from .125" 6061 aluminum sheet, the rear plate is 2" x 2" of same material. The front and rear plates are drilled for the strut brackets and the whole assembly is thru-bolted using countersunk flat head machine screws and nyloc nuts on the rear. A knob is run through the assembly and into a nut that is bonded to the back of the rear plate with polyurethane glue. the knob size and type aren't critical, I used one from a drill angle jig that was kicking around my shop.

The lower assembly mimics the upper, but in this case a 2" x2" plate is bolted through the holes of the strut brackets into the frame rail of the car. There is a flimsy brace between the exhaust box and the frame rail of the car that is cut and ground flush to allow installation.

The Attwood struts are available in several different output force configurations:

http://www.attwoodmarine.com/products/parts.asp?productid=650&path=gassprings&category=7&gtype=1&categoryname=Gas+Springs+and+Accessories&typename=Gas+Spring&headername=Gas+Springs+and+Accessories

You can mix them to get the characteristics for your car, from weaker ones that just hold the lid once lifted, to ones that make it swoosh up when you pull the release latch. They do not have to "match", for instance you can use a 60 and a 40.

The only other thing to note is that the pressure from the struts deflects the hinges about 3/16" on my car which makes a slight misalignment of the rear engine lid at the trailing edge. This could easily be solved by either a stifferning strip along the car's gutter where the hinges are, or a check strap beteeen the hinge and the frame rail. I just haven't really got around to it, since the other thing is not very noticeable.

[davidb]

That's a pretty complicated set-up. My test set-up is woefully
crude compared to yours. I'd describe mine but I'm waiting for
delivery of a 2ND strut so it'd be a waste of space as I'm
unsure it will even work as yet. I'm hoping to be able to just
bolt in two struts [4 ball tipped bolts] w/sufficient lift to merely
hold the lid up. Anything is preferable to carrying around a sawed
off broomstick.

[Will]

Hmm..it's only four parts that you need to fabricate and three of them are flat aluminum plates that can be cut out with a hacksaw if you really had to. The last is a bit of aluminum angle. I wonder if I should make up a few of these and ebay them? I'd hate to make them and have no takers, but if I made a few up I could do it for the mid $200 range and break even for my time, at least, keep it from being charity work. How many are interested in, say, a $250 setup that's complete with hardware, and all you would have to do is grind the bracket in the car and mount the lower assembly to the frame rail (drill and tap four holes) and mount the upper assembly to the lid (four more holes).? If there is enough interest I'll do it, but I need some economy of scale to make it work, I can't do just one. Four or five sets would probably be necessary. And anybody who wants to cross post this to uh...."various places", I'm OK with that, I'd rather get anybody/everybody who wants one a chance to get in. Darren had expressed an interest in this setup, and I could just as easily ship a couple to the UK to one person to redistribute to lancisti on the other side. Lead time would be 6-8wks. Mine's already built so I'm not trying to be a "vendor", OK by me either way.

[Darren]

Hi Will,

Thanks for the info Will and the spec sheet - muchly appreciated and put to good use already! Metal has been ordered, it remains to be seen if the struts I have are ok for the job. I will do something slightly different with the lower bracket and post some pics once it's sorted.

I'd be happy to co-ordinate if anyone this side of the pond is interested - the price is good, but the killer can be the duty and VAT etc if you get picked up through customs - ask me how I know!! ;o)

Cheers again!

[lanciatomcat]

Darren
I would be interested to see what you develop.
I am aware of your 'adventure' with HM Customs and so am very wary of items coming in to UK.
Regards
Tom

[Will]

You know, a couple of guys in the UK have asked me to but make-believe stuff on UK parcels so they can avoid customs over the years.

The problem is, I have a couple of businesses and a modest,relatively comfortable lifestyle and really don't relish the thought of sanction or imprisonment over customs fraud. I'd like to save y'all a buck, but the exchange rate is like 2:1 now, so if you have to pay taxes on stuff, I'm sorry but please don't even ask me to put "free gift" or "product samples" on a volumex or instrument cluster. I just can't do it. If you find a surrogate stateside that you want me to ship to, and he'll send to you, that's between you and him what goes on the customs form. Sorry mates. Meanwhile, I'll mail anything anywhere as long as the buyer pays actual shipping. If it actually gets to you in Zimbabwe, I can't guarantee.


edit> Darren, that top part should be 1-1/2" X 1/8" thick angle, sorry about that if you've ordered it, but you can run it through a regular table saw with a sharp carbide ATB blade, I do that all the time.

[davidb]

I just completed my strut install. Two AutoZone #95503s operate perfectly.
Attatchment points were right in my face. $68, I'm done.

[1,6 HF]

Attatchment points were right in my face.

sounds painful

[Darren]

Darren
I would be interested to see what you develop.
I am aware of your 'adventure' with HM Customs and so am very wary of items coming in to UK.
Regards
Tom

No probs Tom, I'll keep you posted! ;o)

[Darren]

You know, a couple of guys in the UK have asked me to but make-believe stuff on UK parcels so they can avoid customs over the years.

The problem is, I have a couple of businesses and a modest,relatively comfortable lifestyle and really don't relish the thought of sanction or imprisonment over customs fraud. I'd like to save y'all a buck, but the exchange rate is like 2:1 now, so if you have to pay taxes on stuff, I'm sorry but please don't even ask me to put "free gift" or "product samples" on a volumex or instrument cluster. I just can't do it. If you find a surrogate stateside that you want me to ship to, and he'll send to you, that's between you and him what goes on the customs form. Sorry mates. Meanwhile, I'll mail anything anywhere as long as the buyer pays actual shipping. If it actually gets to you in Zimbabwe, I can't guarantee.


edit> Darren, that top part should be 1-1/2" X 1/8" thick angle, sorry about that if you've ordered it, but you can run it through a regular table saw with a sharp carbide ATB blade, I do that all the time.

Hi Will,

It's not necessarily the value that's put on the packaging as far as I'm concerned - yes it does affect the VAT chargeable, which there's not a great deal you can do about and of course you should factor this into your thinking before you go ahead with importing stuff. If you can get away with getting it sent to a family member who can bring it over or if they're prepared to say it's zero value stuff then so be it!

The issue I have is that once it get's to this side of the pond, there are at least 3 layers of shite, all of which want their fee, and that side of things you can only estimate, because until it happens, you really have no idea what that cost is going to be.

I bought a rear bumper, boot lip spoiler, and 2 sail panel air vents (old roger grantham items) bumper was a new item pulled from an old mould, the spoiler was secondhand, and the air vents were like the bumper. All in price was $600.00 including $100.00 of postage, a price I was happy with - although the quality of the moulds is not good, a fact I was warned about, but my thinking was that I got all that for less than the cost of a new bumper over here. However, I ended up paying another $350.00 to get the package (bumper sized) from one side of customs to the other - and at least half of that was 'broker fees' - I didn't ask for them to do the work, but it was a fait a complis - 'either you pay or you don't get your s**t, take it or leave it!' $600 for the stuff I was happy with - nearly $1,000 was simply not worth it and if I knew that from the outset, I wouldn't have bothered and fabricated the stuff meself - as I'm going to have to do to get them into something like good enough to go on the car.

This is not a moan again Jason who supplied the stuff - other than having to wait a LONG time to get them, he has been friendly and helpful - it IS a moan against those people who put themselves in the middle to 2 people trying to do business and add 50% to the overall cost! Phew, rant over - I need a beer!! Oh, it's only 9.15am - still not long til lunch! ;o)

Thanks for the update on the angle - already ordered, but no table saw at home, so looks like it'll be get the hacksaw out! Maybe I should get meself one?

Cheers

[Will]

I just completed my strut install. Two AutoZone #95503s operate perfectly.
Attatchment points were right in my face. $68, I'm done.

Congratulations, David! Now thre's more than one way to do it.

Darren: 9:15AM never stopped me before, or DavidB judging by his choice of "packing material" he sent me some stuff in. As the song goes, it's five o clock somewhere!

[davidb]

Hey Will all that Budweiser protection fit & it cost me nothing! Look
what Obert does w/shredded paper. That A.O. charges for "packing
material". Hello? What? Provide me a MAJOR break please. Plus as
J. Keller normally says: beer this+. Dunno. That's my work routine
w/these damn cars: lotsa suds on hand to subdue my frustration[s].
But that's just me. Hey you got the struts properly protected after-
all.