Hood Strut Rivet Install Fail

I guess what I meant was that hollow pop rivets are not always the best option, but there are more durable options for pull rivets like I mentioned. Your product looks great, I meant no offense.

 

Thank you, and no offense taken at all! I just wanted to point that the pop rivets we use are not the cheap crap you find at Home Depot. These are the rivets we use - https://adprivet.com/product/race-car-rivets-316-abs6266-gray-small-head-ultimate-multi-grip-copy/

There is a whole science to fastening, as you are obviously aware; the pop rivets we use are a good combo of not needing any complicated tools or specialized installation techniques, and work very well for these heavy gauge-to-thinner-gauge sheetmetal fastening applications. If we were fastening composites or plastics, we'd definitely be using something different.

 

Prop rods are just plain stupid. Some of us are confident enough in our abilities to drill a few simple holes. And when the gas struts wear out, replacements are usuall about $20. Well worth it to not have a prop rod. Oh, and for the record, damn near every SUV, hatchback, or car with a hood still uses gas struts. Not sure what you're referring to as "years ago"

 

it’s interesting I was just looking at my moms new 2019 Rav 4 Limited thinking for sure it would have hood struts and to my surprise nope! Just a dinky little backwards kinda manual prop Oh well I guess the hood doesn’t weigh near what the Tacoma hood does. My dads new F150 has struts tho

 

I guess most have forgot the very simple springs on the hood hinges, that were OEM for almost all cars & trucks, from back in the early 50's thru the 70's. Worked great, they helped raise the hood & held it up, so no prop stick. Gosh I wish they had just left them alone instead of trying to (un)-improving them.

 

Creaky, but they worked well. My guess is weight savings. That, or some dumb kid pinched his dingus in one of the springs and sued.

 

What he said.

 

Technology might have improved but quality has suffered. As a licensed mechanic since 1974, I have changed hundreds of these spring cylinders holding everything up including hoods on trucks, cars, forklifts, tractors etc. and one thing is for sure - they fail regularly and then you have to prop it up with a stick until you replace. A lot of the time the ball socket breaks and the rod just flops there. I used to stock several sets in my service van when servicing Toyota forklifts as they broke often. Most of these cylinders are made in Asia even though the product is supposed to be American ( the brackets are made in USA only). Unless you are completely stupid you would not use a broomstick or equivalent if you have the factory rod that fits in the hood but go ahead and waste your money and drill a bunch of holes - it's your truck not mine.

 

I have sokie tech no drilling or riveting justs bolts right on

 

I should have said they started using them years ago as before they used counter springs in the older cars. Sorry . Man you must be a super buyer to get 2 of these long shocks for $20 as I just replaced a set on a Mini-van for 6 times that price and I priced at a lot of sites.

 

Gas struts do fail with time, no doubt. They lose a few percent of their charge each year (better struts lose less than cheaper ones), and at some point they can no longer support the hood. The good news is that you have some notice before they fail - if you pay attention, you'll notice they need replacement well before they can't hold up the hood anymore. In contrast, if a prop rod fails or gets knocked out halfway through a timing belt job, you better pray that all your digits are out the way of the 50 lb falling hood .

Most cylinders are made in Asia, that is true. Since this thread has the Spiker name on it (although I wish the OP would change the title, I hate seeing the "Failed Spiker" used in one sentence), I'll just point out that our struts are in fact USA made. I know someone earlier said that it's a gimmick; perhaps. But it's not a gimmick if it's your job in Michigan or California that benefits from this, and I'm proud of our use of 100% domestic content.

 

Hey Jemm63, you've been in the business, how many of the old springs, that were on the hinges do you remember replacing, I'd think they were still around in "74".

 

I am glad to see that they are 100% USA made as I notice that a lot of the time parts are stamped made in Asia or parts of it but on the package says made in USA. I have never personally had a hood fall on me but when working on heavy industrial hoods, I always stuck a 2X4 to make sure it did not fall as these shocks get weaker with time. The old cars were a real pain as they had a pointy safety latch that stuck downwards and it was hard on the head if you were bending down and lifted your head up. Most mechanics wrapped a shop towel around it to "soften the blow"

 

I can remember replacing one a on Chrysler product that actually broke but that was 30 years ago and if I remember it was a real pain as they were in the top of the front fender and hard to get at. I also remember that your could wind the spring tighter when they got weak so most of the time you would not have to replace. I did adjust a lot in the trunk lid as the older cars had a lot of metal trim that made the trunk lid not hold up when the springs weakened but it was just a simple adjustment. I personally prefer the old spring hinge as they were durable and out of the way but probably more costly to make.

 

Use rivnuts instead of rivets... why are we still using rivets in 2020?

 

Some folks have used rivnuts, there are pros and cons. You can use M4 or M5 rivnuts to work with existing holes in brackets, or M6 if you're going to drill the holes in bracket slightly oversize.

Rivets are better for shear loads, which is the primary loading with gas struts. Also it's usually easier to get access to a rivet gun than a rivnut gun. Also the holes drilled in the truck are larger for rivnuts than rivets. Also I can't think of any reason you'd want to remove a bracket after installation, and even if you do, you can easily drill the rivets out.

But both are perfectly good options.

 

I am loving my Spiker Engineering Gas hood struts! On install, I had to work the drill bit around a little bit to open up the holes to accept the rivets. keep at it and don't be afraid to work it and you'll be good. I'm fairly new to riveting/fastening and have probably only fired around 10 in my life (8 of them being on the hood strut install . You have to crank the gun, and you better be flush with the gun hubbed out. my dad thought I should try and work it without having the nose of the rivet gun snug up all the way but I said nah I don't wanna mess this up - I only get one shot at this. lol. usually he's right, but I was on that one. I don't think I could have even gotten the gun to engage though if I wasn't snugged up or at least it didn't seem like it was going to.

*Also the title of the thread is a tough read. I'll say that it did get my attention to look at the thread before my install this past weekend and i'm grateful to have had my attention drawn to it for whatever that's worth. Spiker was very helpful in pre-install tips for me and I truly believe that if not for this thread, I could have very easily had a failed installation, so I am thankful for selfish reasons * Also, the Taco Twonz youtube video is fantastic. I highly recommend it, even though he has a 3rd gen, very similiar to my 2nd gen install and there are no current 2nd gen videos. I posted the best pics I could above to hopefully help others

 

Well you dont need a rivnut gun to install rivnuts, the struts could easily be removed, struts dont last forever, why make it so people feel they only have one shot to get the install right. Rivnuts > rivets

 

This is perfect!

 

To each their own. You don't need to remove the brackets to replace the struts, the struts are easily removed from the brackets.