Looking for opinions on the hydraulic lifters for steel hoods. It appears that about 2-3 years ago most people recommended the James Duff ones because they reinforced the side of the hood with long braces.

I'm not opposed to spending the extra money if necessary. But...if there are tried and true alternatives that are less money-- I'm all ears.

You might be able to piece together a system from mcmaster.com

http://www.mcmaster.com/#gas-springs/=uyjvb9

I needed new shocks for my topper glass. went a little overboard and the new ones would upper-cut ya if you weren't ready.

I made my own set up. Just went to the junkyard and found some bolt on ball pivots and messed around with different length struts until I figured out what worked for me. I ended up using slightly worn out 2005 Dodge Ram hood struts. I get the hood up about a foot and they take it the rest of the way from there without too much force to close. My hood is a little lighter than stock being 10 inches narrower so new struts from an '05 Dodge Ram 1500 may be just right for a full hood. My total cost was free since I have access to old worn out struts at work daily.

You can make the brackets for the hood pretty easily they are just L shaped flat metal. The hood shocks as mentioned can be picked up anywhere and the lower c brackets are again easy to make. I have the duff setup on my 76 would be happy to take pics and measurements.

I'm not really opposed to paying the $100 bucks for the Duff set with reinforcements. Just didn't know if people had any first hand knowledge on those over the other vendor kits that do not have the hood braces.

There are certain things that it's just worth the extra $40 bucks to buy as a kit and be done with it. I think this is one of those scenarios for me.

With a steel hood you need that extra bracing. at some point when pulling the front of the hood down it will deform or start to fold near the shock mounts on the hood without it. There are lots of threads on cb about it.

That's why I went with the duff kit myself. And would do it again.

In case you want to piece something together.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371174759797?_t ... OC:US:3160