Completely blown out hatch lifts?

[gbeaird]

Since our hatch is fiberglass, I'm not going to use good gas lifts on it for fear of breaking it in half. I think I have a viable solution for supporting the hatch when we need it open, but would like to at least have it look like it still has working lifts. The ones we have either work really well, or are locked up. I can't tell, as I can't get enough force on them to test.

Does anyone have any completely blown out, but good looking old lifts they'd like to get rid of? And I mean blown out, that is, you can easily move the rod in and out by hand with ease. If so, please let me know. Thanks.

[GAboySVO]

Gene, you might look for gas springs that were used to lift only the glass in some of the older SUVs or the ones used for the camper tops for a truck.

[gbeaird]

I think I need something that won't put any force on the mounting balls, Mike. I thought we might just use the existing lifts as supports when we need the hatch open, so we opened the hatch and set the lifts in place on the mounting studs. As we slowly let the lifts support more weight, I could hear the mounting studs cracking in the hatch, so stopped that effort. I really just want something for the look, and provide zero support.

I can probably also drill a hole in the lifts we have, but they usually have some oil in them I'd rather not have to deal with cleaning up all the time.

[GAboySVO]

OK, I understand they will just be for show. Did you check with HO Fibertrends on what they recommend?

[gbeaird]

OK, I understand they will just be for show. Did you check with HO Fibertrends on what they recommend?

That's a good idea. I have not, but will. Thanks.

EDIT: Did H-O even make the hatch? Their site doesn't show one, so I'm hesitant to ask. VFN Fiberglass shows both a lift off and bolt-on hatch, though. I guess I could go ahead and act like a fool and ask H-O. Won't be the first time! :-)

[GAboySVO]

I recall seeing a fox body hatch on their site when I was looking to replace my hood.

And this was the name of the bookmark I made back then: HO Fibertrends - Fiber Glass Hood & Hatch, but that link came up empty when I tried it just now. So I guess they stopped making the hatch.

[gbeaird]

Okay, I'll try them first. I know the hood I have is an H-O unit, and based on the quality of that, can only figure I repeated with the same vendor for the hatch.