Whats the consensus with the hood struts for the Legendary Cobra R hoods?

CaifanSC

SCCoA Member
I've searched and some say you can use the OEM struts, some say you cant b/c the mounting tabs will brake off the hood, some say you can use just one of the oem struts. Whats the consensus? Whats different between the OEM and the struts sold by legendary that were 'supposed' to be included and that barely any people actually received?

I would prefer to have the struts, but if that will somehow jeopardize the hood...then i guess my other alternative would be the prop-rod off a stang or something...but im not fond of making holes in the car unless I have to. Im feeling kinda unconfy already by having to make holes on the rad support for the hood pins. But then again its that....or a nice wooden block or broom stick :rolleyes: .

Any help appreciated. Thanx!
 
T@Sound-Xtreme said:
Im pretty sure you dont, youd rip a whole through the damn hood if you did.

Tyler

LOL!!!! Well then maybe I'll have to take a look at them when I get home. They looked stock is all I have to say.

Shane
 
don't use stocker Ford ones...

CaifanSC said:
You guys prove my point! hehe...i'd appreciate any info guys.
I got my hood new from them. When I did they also sold the other hood struts. I put them on a steel hood and they would NOT hold it up. They are lighter and they are needed for the glass hood. You can be foolled as they do look like stocker's. You can try the stocker's BUT you will have trouble... I think Randy Baker did try stocker's and had to redo the mounts after they ripped out....Good luck but be CAREFUL.........Rich
 
pro street rich said:
Good luck but be CAREFUL.........Rich

Oh yeah, i remember reading that post from Randy. It sux b/c alot of people pay a good few hundred bux for the hood new and have to deal with such a problem. Fortunatelly i didnt pay that much ($150) but i still dont want to risk the damage. Thats also hoping that there are no fitment issues. The guy i bought it from said he had already installed it on his bird, and apparently its true....so i hope to have no problems in that department.

Does anybody know exactly what the problem is? From posts i've read on tccoa and here im confused as to what the problem is....if the oem struts are too long...or too 'stiff/strong'. In any case, could i buy either a shorter or weaker strut from like autozone?
 
I had an original Legendary hood from about 1999 .. it was terrible, I had to cut out and re-glass where the hinges mount onto the hood - they didnt cut a recess into the material and the hood stuck up above the fenders.

Aside from that, I also purchased the hood struts they sold, and they wouldnt even hold up the hood - too weak.

So I re-used my original struts and ended up ripping the mounts off eventually. The problem is when you open the hood and they fully extend, they stress the mounts, especially if you just open it and let it go up on its own it sort of bumps it up. Id blame the craftsmanship of the hood over the struts - a nice Cervinis hood can use original struts no problem.
Right now I only have one factory strut on the hood because I dont even care anymore.

You may want to look for a pair of old worn out struts, that barely hold up a stock hood.

- Dan
 
I have the stock struts on my Legendary hood. I have had no problems at all using them.
 
you need weaker ones..

Like I posted, when I got the hood & struts I put the new struts on a stock steel hood to try them. They would not hold the hood up unless it was all the way open, anything less and it would fall. This tells me that they are weaker than the stockers.
Now as for fit.... well there are a bunch of posts on the fit of these hoods... All of them say the same thing GOOD LUCK you will need it. You might get lucky here as your hood was already on a car. That means that someone has already done the fitting that the hood needs...The hood latch is also something that needs to get modded.Most guys just go with pins and say "to heck" with the latch. This does work, but if you want to keep it you will have to do some work to it. I had to raise mine about 1/2 inch to get it to latch...
All things equal, you got this hood, now you MUST take the time to get it to work...it will work and look good when you are done fitting it.....Rich
 
SCme94 said:
I have the stock struts on my Legendary hood. I have had no problems at all using them.


Tony was drunk when making this post.


I first tried my stock shocks, and I heard cracking from the figerglass, and stopped right away. I would like to know the part number on the ones they sell though. I need to get some, as a plank of wood can be seen holding my hood open :)


Tyler
 
T@Sound-Xtreme said:
a plank of wood can be seen holding my hood open :)
Tyler

I thought about doing that too....and decorating the piece with two bright green racing stripes and a red "TYPE R" stickaaaaaa.

On a serious note.... just like Tayler, id liek to know if anybody has any info on the struts offered by legendary...part number or price?
 
will look for some #'s

T@Sound-Xtreme said:
Tony was drunk when making this post.


I first tried my stock shocks, and I heard cracking from the figerglass, and stopped right away. I would like to know the part number on the ones they sell though. I need to get some, as a plank of wood can be seen holding my hood open :)


Tyler
I will check to see what #'s are on them this weekend for you all. I will post them asap....Rich
 
Tony was drunk when making this post.




I first tried my stock shocks, and I heard cracking from the figerglass, and stopped right away. I would like to know the part number on the ones they sell though. I need to get some, as a plank of wood can be seen holding my hood open

Me drunk...never:)

I too heard a few strange sounds "the first time" but once I got over it I have not heard it since. I don't use hood pins either and it has been like this since the spring of 2002:cool:
 
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Still making up my mind on these....however, reading through several posts and seeing the hood I got, i came to relize that i need the little 'mounting ball' thingies...sorry, dont know what else to call them. The mounting flanges on the hood seem to be threaded so im wondering if anybody can tell me where to get the ball socket things.
 
overall bad craftsmanship

I have had mine for 3 years. I have the hinge area problem as stated above also my latch had to be raised 1 inch to latch and after about 6 months of using the latch it has cracked the gelcoat and paint right above the latch on the surface of the hood. The whipers are impossible to use unless to grind sand and re body work that area. One of the rear corners of the hood is cracked all the way through the hood and inner panel.

It is too bad we do not have a good supplier of these hoods, because I think they are the best looking ones on the Tbird.

I have not used the struts due to being scared that they will further damage the hood and show more design flaws. If they weren't one of the only suppliers and the cheapest they would not be making these hoods.
 
I have an age classic cobra r hood with stock struts and it's fine. I originally did not use them at all...and used the broom stick. Then I started using them to hold the hood up at shows, then I would remove them when shutting the hood. Finally I tried to lower the hood with the stock struts and it made some wierd noises too, but now it doesn't make any noises.

After observing how slowly the hood raises on it's own efforts.....I highly doubt that a lighter strut would hold this hood up. So it's either these struts, or no struts.

And I have hood pins too. So whenever I pop the pins out I just lift the hood up a few inches, let go and it slowly raises on it's own. Just fine.

Micah
 
Tony and Micah, how old are your factory hood struts? Maybe they aren't as strong as when new and work fine on the fiberglass hood. I would think you could buy the same length strut designed for lighter duty. I would do some research and find out how the part numbers break down on replacement struts to see if a lighter duty version could be used instead.

Jerry
 
My hood struts are about 7 years old. But have maybe 20,000 miles of use. I think they are still pretty good.

For instance, at a car show last year a fellow supercouper had some shot struts on his SC. When he lifted the hood, it wouldn't stay open. I got the bright idea to switch him struts....thinking the "shot" ones would be easier on my hood. But his struts wouldn't even hold my hood open.

I'm telling you, the stock are just about perfect for the Age Classic Cobra hood. If you used anything lighter, you would have problems holding the hood open. This should be evident when you lift my hood and it "slowly" raises to the fully open position. It doens't rocket up in place...but it takes some time for it to fully extend.

Micah
 
I just picked one of these hoods up that was purchased at Carlisle years ago and never installed. It came with the strut ball deals so no problem there...and well my stock struts are so shot they won't even hold the glass hood up.

As for fitment...it was like mentioned above. Had to move the hood latch an inch up...actually welded it to the frame, the bottom of the latch plate is sitting on the factory mounting points. About a total of 8 hours shaving filler off the back near the wiper cowl so that it would sit down. Still sits up just a tick in the back...but will be fine once preped for paint. Also had to get the fiberglass bondo and put the top and bottom glass pieces back together since they were barely held together and they seperated. Oh and without hood pins this baby would fly off, since the latch won't latch completely.

Overall I couldn't be happier though. All of this took sometime but no big deal. Gave me time with my Dad so I'm thankful for that...and I know that this is just part of the deal when putting on an Aftermaket product...remember no 2 cars are the same, so its not really their fault.

-Tim
 
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