Adding Gas Filled Struts to '59 Trunk Hinges

If you have any questions or comments about this project, please email me at:

The original trunk spring mechanism.

Springs and mounting plate removed. I kept the original hinges intact so that the mechanism preventing the simultaneous opening of the trunk and soft top lid would be maintained

The gas strut installed. 

The gas strut comes with plastic snap-on connectors on each end, which I removed.

The studs on each end of the strut are 6mm x 1mm thread rods.

The connection at the top is just a nut and washer.

The ball at the bottom is a brass drawer pull that I re-threaded.

 

The strut can be easily removed from the aluminum plate at the bottom by just lifting

up on the trunk lid and lifting the ball end out of the indentation in the aluminum plate.

 

The reason for mounting the strut like this at the bottom was to allow the strut

to be de-compressed when the car is stored with the trunk closed for a long period of time.

The aluminum plate at the bottom of the strut is 1/2" flat stock

with an indentation to receive the ball at the bottom of the strut.

In my car the hardtop is always on, so I did not replace the soft top lid spring.

 

A closeup picture of the strut. 

The specs on the strut are:

Extended length = 10"

Compressed length = 7"

Pressure fully extended = 100 lbs.

If you are addeing these struts to a '58 Corvette you may want to use 120 lb. struts on the trunk lid

I decided to add struts for the soft top lid.

This strut has the same dimensions as the trunk strut

but the pressure fully extended = 40 lbs.

I also replaced the brass drawer pulls with

some pieces that I made on my 3D printer

Trunk with cover plates over hinges

I added the cover plates to provide easy access to the new hinge cylinders