hmmmmmmm well then im clueless lol there lots or odd and wierd things to these hoods not saying their bad by no means im happy with mine just some people have some of the same things happen and some dont go figure i guess thats what happens when you starting modding

 

Where to get them & how much ?

 

Yeah, I called SLP and they told me the SS uses the same strut as a factory steel hood.

I need something, and fast. I was told they would work, then I was told to use a lighter strut, then I was told to buy a prop, and then I was told to modify my struts. WHAT THE HELL!

Seeing that I have an SS sitting in my driveway, I will check the part numbers of the T/A and the SS.

 

look on ebay.

 

ive got a buddy with an after market ss hood and his has the dimples also, but the car is an original 2000 ss with the factory struts and im going to be purchasing a sunoco hood for my z in the future so i will be paying attention to this thread

 

i wish there was a way to leak out the sir or hydraulic fluid in them to make them weaker.

i should've kept my worn hatch struts

 

you can have custom struts made for 150

 

dude just modify one strut for now. https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/472944-lightweight-hood-strut-mod-how.html

 

i like the idea of the lift locks like the guy suggested from advanced auto parts. that way you don't have to see the pin sticking out of the strut kinda a eye sore to me.. it would be nice to be able to only use one hood strut but i know that would be even worse for the hood.

 

so anybody come up with a correct part number for all camaro sunoco hood owners out there that have to prop up there hood with a stick if they have work on something under the hood lol no seriously (well atleast for me its a leg from the side porch railing works great hahahah lol........seriously though im interested in getting the correct struts for my hood and im sure the others are ready for the answer too so .........somebody, anybody help ???????????????

 

I don't know but I suspect that maybe they have the same part number but that SLP somehow modified the hood struts to put on SS, WS6, and Firehawk hoods.

Why else would they have take-off struts for Camaros and Firebirds. They did the same thing when they took the stock decarbons off and replaced them with Bilsteins.

 

Anybody got some new info on this problem ??? i need something on my hood besides my stick holding it up when im tinkering lol

 

I wish.... I'm still sporting the stock struts on my sunoco but am becoming more and more weary having them

 

ow god so im guessing theres no hope for a safe hood strut on the sunoco huh???

 

any word people? Somebody has to have came up with something positive to this by now hopefully???

 

Yes, there is nothing you can use, aside from having a custom strut made. My hood uses a prop for the strut, like a screen door. If I had known I wouldn't be able to use my hood struts on this hood I would have never gotten it. This is absolutely ridiculous, and I feel it's VFN's responsibility to sell a strut that will work.

 

I was thinking about just installing a normal hood support that folds up as I'm picking up my VFN this weekend and I'm trying to find out about the hood struts and not damaging my hood. I thought it had been established that if you got hood struts from a 97 SS they would have lower psi or what not...?

 

All I know is that MY 97 SS does have lighter duty shocks than my Firebird with the steel hood. I've scoured ebay and have not found another set. Auto Zone offers the same set as my Firebird, even when they look up a 97 SS. SLP must have modified it somehow, or else it's just loosing power from being old. To be fair, I bought a set of shocks advertised as being off of an SS straight from SLP and guess what - they were the same as the ones on my Firebird.
It's not really VFN's responsibility at all. I don't mean to sound like a dick about it, but there is not one single fiberglass company that includes or options out a lighter duty shock when you buy a hood from them...at least not for an f-body. If it was a widespread issue I am POSITIVE they would LET YOU KNOW prior to purchasing the hood. You said that you wish you would have known you can't use your shocks on your new hood, but honestly, who is telling you that you can't? You can't tell me that one or two people's issues with their hood are what is preventing you from using your hood shocks. You can't blame VFN if they don't know what's going on. It's our responsibility as customers to let them know if their product is defective. Clearly it isn't as VFN has not made any claims that their fiberglass is not durable enough to handle stock shocks.

However, the hood damage we've been seeing appears to be isolated and to be perfectly fair, I don't think it's a problem with the hood shocks at all. I've been sporting my VFN WS6 hood for almost a year and have had no such problems. In fact, I picked the hood up the day it was freshly finished and bolted it right onto my car - same day. If the shocks were going to do any damage, surely they would have while the hood was in it's weakest state. The hood remained on the car during it's 3 months of curing and also remained on the car during paint.

Maybe it is an issue with the shocks, maybe it isn't. If you have a problem with the hood and it's being damaged by stock shocks [as in came on the car not an aftermarket alternative] then you have to let them know. We can't just come onto the forum and bitch and moan and assume they will creep in and magically fix the problem. By the same token we can't assume that they MUST find a lower psi shock when we don't even know for 100% sure that is what the problem is.

To everyone who already has a hood on their car and is weary - if your hood hasn't been damaged after a few months, chances are it never will become damaged naturally by the shocks. I'm no expert in fiberglass, but I know that it doesn't get weaker day by day.

 

Russ, could you direct this thread to VFN and see what they think about it? I know you know a lot of them by name so I wouldn't even know which person to send it to.

 

I don't see why not ... even though my hood is JUST FINE THANKS BRIAN!



BTW - PM sent ...