Hood Strut Rivet Install Fail

Too bad they’re not available

 

Little addition to my toolbox this evening compliments of Spiker Engineering.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/high-lift-hood-struts-for-the-3rd-gen-tacoma.642445/

 

Nice! If you put it on your truck, it'd add like 15 hp

That's discussed in post 31-37. A two handed tool should fit under the hood (you may need to lift the hood a bit higher temporarily), just make sure the tip is narrow enough to fully seat the gun on the rivet.

 

yeah my dad held up the hood higher and I could have prob gotten it done that way also, but unfortunately we didn’t have a big enough lift so he could do that and hold the fender out also. So the mini rivet gun worked fine for me. It gave my forearms a workout for sure, ha but I got it done even during these times of the gym being closed lol. I credit my teenage workouts for the man strength today! Ha.

 

$44 Qty (2) StrongArm 6452 Front Hood Lift Supports

https://www.amazon.com/StrongArm-Supports-Struts-Shocks-Springs/dp/B00NUJ3K8W

https://www.oreillyauto.com/shop/b/body---trim-16771/lift-supports---universal-18153/accaab543209


or maybe you just got bent over

 

Don't masturbate or get laid for 6 months and you'll be able to pop those rivets with a standard rivet gun. I finished mine in about 30 min

 

OP here. Just wanted to commend Spiker Engineering for working with me on options, sending me a new bracket for the one I messed up along with some new rivets and one already crimped for comparison. 10/10 would buy again.

So, got mine installed and they work perfectly. A few notes...

The rivet gun I was using (Arrow) sucked... It would only click once when releasing it, meaning it would only go over the notches in the rivet made by the grabbing teeth of the rivet gun once (not a mech. engineer. I do computer stuff instead, but I understand how things work. Excuse the lack of proper terms). So, with each squeeze I was only getting about 1-2mm of pull. Not to mention the gun itself was flimsy (After it got to its max range of travel I could still compress the handles together til they almost touched). The head on it was so wide I was probably at about a 15 degree angle or so on the rivet head.

So, I bought a new gun (it was actually around $15 at AutoZone compared to around $25 at Lowes). The new gun has slightly more leverage as the handles are a couple inches longer. Trust me, after slinging pipe on an oil rig as a younger man every inch counts It also has a "head" about 3/4 the width of the arrow. I actually put a junk 3/16th rivet in the bracket and used it as leverage to slightly bend my fender in so the gun was flush. Pic is worth a thousand words.



I just painted over the nicks afterwards with touch-up paint.

Also, I was planning on using rivnuts, but Spiker Eng. sent me a compressed rivet. After banging the pulled out holes back into place with some nylon tools they actually compressed back to their original size enough that I thought the rivets would be better than drilling more. After re-installing the bracket I messed up it was super flush and solid.

So, overall everything worked out great. Also, for those of you complaining about installing gas struts rather than just using the prop... SMH. Go away. Go find another soapbox.



Also, I made an addition to my toolbox too.

 

Awesomeness my Bro!...


That may assist future forum members...
This place is amazing!

 

Great to hear the happy outcome, @Sinjhin ! Looks like that crappy rivet gun was the culprit, I'm glad the new (smaller) one did the trick! You'll be totally fine with reusing those original holes - like you saw with the popped rivet I sent you, the bulb on these is huge, it's not going anywhere after installation. These rivets are actually very lightly loaded in use (the struts push down directly on the bracket with the hood open, and put the rivets in shear with the hood closed) - we're talking less than 50 lbs per rivet. These rivets are good to 300-400 lbs each in shear, so nothing to worry about.

Thanks so much for coming back and providing the update. And for changing the thread title .

 

Looks like a champ @Sinjhin ! This toolbox thing is catching on @SpikerEng !
And to all those sayin gas struts are not needed. Lawd I wish I had done these 12 years ago! My dad says if u have any clients needing them installed in Mississippi we will fix them up for u !

 

Or maybe you are full of bullcrap - show me at these sites shown where you can get 2 struts of these long struts for a Tacoma $20 - I am seeing $25 to $35 each

 

Brah just do yourself a favor and don’t cheap out on this mod that is worth every penny. Spiker Engineering for the win. Hands down. Mic drop.

 

A) I'm seeing $16-30 B) when did I say 2 for 20? You're making up some Big Lots deals in your head man. $30-$40 every few years if they fail is worth it to not have a stupid prop-rod. But you keep holding your hood up with a stick bro. I don't care.

 

Some people just come across as being angry. Want to argue about everything. If mine wear out I will replace. Big whoop.

 

I feel like the two offerings that require drilling/rivets are possibly a superior product to the SokieTechs. However, I wanted a quick and easy solution, not having to drill, buy a good rivet gun, paint holes, etc -- These were the selling points for me to decide on ordering the Sokie Techs. Attempted to install them tonight and the brackets do not fit. They will not lay flat. I messaged the seller and offered for them to chime in on this thread like his competition has done well. Maybe they will. I will update everyone with the outcome regardless.

 

I received this reply from the ebay seller:

New message from: alvoturk9000 (11,532)

We would like to refund US $20 and you can pay for your mechanic to have it a little bit pushing up as the attached file, please let us know your comments for prompt solution.

Sorry for any inconvenience,

 

Here is the reply I sent:

New message to: alvoturk9000
Pushing that up flat is not possible without cutting a large hole to allow for the bracket to push up through the sheet metal. There also needs to be room in the hole to allow movement of the strut as the angle changes when the hood opens/closes. Did the wrong brackets ship or are these the only brackets you provide for my make/model/year? If you have the correct brackets, I'd prefer to have you ship those to me.

thanks

 

Pictures sometimes hard to tell, and I didn't walk out to my truck - but could their bracket be opened to a larger angle than 90°? Maybe 110°???

 

One idea I toyed with was to sandwich the bracket between the hinge plate and the hood. This would not be ideal and would require me to shim the rearward hinge bolt with some washers to match the thickness of the strut mount. This would result in the rear of the hood being raised about 5mm. Not enough to provide any cooling benefit, but enough to make it look like crap.

If my mig welder wasn't buried in my storage unit, I'd just grind down the bracket and tack it on, but the whole reason for me getting the Sokie was that in theory, I could install it on my lunchbreak. Clearly I have made a mistake in ordering these and although I'm giving the seller every chance to correct it, I don't think they actually have a bracket that fits 2nd-gen Tacos and they regularly issue this $20 credit or hope the purchaser just gets creative and deals with it on their own. I'll continue to update this thread to help others make a better decision about a gen-2 strut kit.