hood shocks or not

[88Vic]

The shocks that hold up the hood on my car are shot so obviously i'm looking to replace them as using a board gets annoying. What i'm wondering is how long do the shocks usually last if I only open the hood every oil change or so, and are there any alternatives? Not sure what the Ford trucks use but my Chevy's use the heavy metal spring loaded hinges and those hold up huge heavy truck hoods well so they'd fit right in holding up the massive Lincoln hood.

Has anyone found any that would fit to use, that way they don't have to replace the shocks every so often when they get worn out? Here's a pic of what i'm talking about:

[marquisman]

i dont see why, you could not use merc/ford hood hinges. would only have to locate and drill a hole, for the lower spring mount on the fender me thinks.

[88Vic]

So Lincolns got shafted with shocks while the others got hinges? That sucks for me, guess i'l have to buy a set of hinges and measure to drill holes for bolts. For now i'll just get a set of shocks if they're not too expensive while I work on this. The shocks have one bolt on each side so i'd have to drill out the fender and the hood too I think.

[mercurygm88]

I like my spring hinges there 24 years old and still work like new.

[86VickyLX]

Some variances of the Lincoln only used one hood strut. And those were the earlier years. That's gotta be really scary. If I'm not mistaken, the Lincoln trunks use a shock as well, versus that rod spring stuff...

[BerniniCaCO3]

I was just wondering about this today, actually.
Seems a vast majority of cars use pneumatics, if there's any automatic assist (versus just an oem hood prop), which while cheap to replace, are still an inevitability after some years. I have a hood prop in my tool box for one car out of eight at sears.

Whereas, my springs are good as new, from 1990

Why did springs go away? Haven't seen them on anything but Fords from that era. Are pneumatics just cheaper to make/install for the factory?

[86VickyLX]

Heavier?

[marquisman]

cause you cant make money, on something that will last.

[hypostang]

Somebody told me our Town cars have aluminum hoods when I was thinking about this modification... I am now passing this information on, the spring type hinges may cause the hood to bend/warp

[Piece-it pete]

I too like the springs. Unless they cause the hood to collapse!

Rock's got cheap struts.

Pete

[gadget73]

Aluminum hood towncars will probably have the hood buckle if you use springs. Can't say for sure as I'e never tried, but thats my suspicion. I do know they have different gas shocks depending if its steel or aluminum though, and I have seen the hoods kinked a bit near the hinge in the past with shocks. I didn't verify, but I'm guessing someone fitted steel hood shocks to an aluminum hood and it tweaked.

For what its worth, I put new hood shocks on my car when I got it in 2004. They started to get a little weak in 2010 or so, but they were still working unless the wind caught the hood to push it down. I replaced them because its real windy here and the f'n hood tried to shut on my head once. They aren't that expensive, and if I have to spend 40 bucks every 6 years or something to not have to worry about the hood bending, I'll take it.

[88Vic]

Yeah I don't want to have to get a new hood, i'll stick with the shocks I guess. Not like you can go on Summit and order a new hood for these like you can a truck or Mustang.

[Piece-it pete]

The struts for my steel-hooded 85 are <$20 pair delivered on Rock. A pair for alum hoods are even cheaper!

Pete

[miamibob]

I'd replace whatever the car came with. Haven't had an issue either with the hinges on my '87 or struts on the '95 but who knows???

[88Vic]

I just went to Advance and got them there, only 35 bucks so i'm not gonna complain about that, now I just need to put them on.