What's a good size strut to replace springs on hood hinges?

[Uber Affe]

I have a 1303 and want to replace the springs w/ one of those strut do-hickeys...any one done this mod? I've seen the stuff for sale but too far from me and too expensive...unless someone knows where I can get them in the states for a fair price?...otherwise ... where do I get the piece for the mod?

[Kafer_Mike]

I got mine at www.aircooled.net for about $30. They took less than :30 to install...

[redhot]

could you measure them expanded and contracted?

would be very helpful.

[Uber Affe]

Aircooled only has them for 1302 and standard beetles...not 1303's...

So...guess I'll just shop around for parts and fab something up....

[Steve C]

Hi

I bought some for my car but found they were to long, got the compressed & extended lenghts mixed up, I had a go at fitting them anyway on a junker Im wrecking and I found that with the strut mounted near the factory mount on the hinge and a new bracket mounted near the suspension strut top they were almost to hard to shut the hood with, I then played around with different mounting locations which worked OK. I reckon the air cooled net ones could be made to work, they will be to short so maybe you might need to make a new base bracket.

The secret I found is that the strut needs to pushing the hood shut in the last few degrees of movement of the hood.

Im new to 1303s and I cant beleive how much the hood sways around on the hinges, Im going to look into a way of fixing this.

Steve

[Uber Affe]

I had so much trouble with my hinges popping off and bending (lil bastards)
that I almost considered just using pins. I ended up buying new hinges (used ones) and I don't even have all the retaining clips for the mounts yet. i just had the car painted and the damage repair that the bad hinge created. I'll be damned if I let that happen again now.
As you can see the damage was pretty bad and looks much better now.


http://www.geocities.com/vzif/restor...estobugnew.htm
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http://www.geocities.com/vzif/restor.../restobug2.htm
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I may just remove the springs completely just to avoid the slipping pressure problem. Just dunno what to do really..maybe custom fab something?