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Old 08-01-2019, 11:06 AM
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I used the Fesler hinges on my car also. I don't know if others have experienced the same problem, but I have had all sorts of issues getting the hood to sit down in the back when I have the gas struts installed. I have a set of the lowest pressure units which will hold the hood up when open, so it's not that I'm running a set that is too strong.

One of the problems with the Firebird (which I think is different from a Camaro) is that the fenders have a lip which will prevent the hinge from going down as far as the slots would allow. That is a part of the problem. You can see what I'm talking about if you look closely at the picture below. Just to the left of the post where the strut would attach:



You can see that I'm not completely bottomed on either slot (close on the front), but I'm touching the fender. I don't really want to cut the fenders here, so see below as to how I decided to attack it.

In addition, if you use the cowl to hood seal, it puts pressure on the back of the hood which can push up on it also. A steel hood has plenty of weight to crush that seal.

I very much like the Fesler hinges, so this is not a criticism of them. But if I remove the struts, I can get everything aligned perfectly. So at the moment, I leave the struts off. I know of at least 1 other car which has a carbon hood which also leaves the struts off, but I don't know which brand hinges he uses (RB or Fesler).

FWIW, this bothered me so much that I paid a local fabricator a small fortune to 3D scan the plates, modify them in SolidWorks to raise the slot, and build me a pair. I've then had them anodized. I don't have them on the car at the moment, but sometime soon I will reinstall them and try to use my struts again.

Not sure how helpful that was, but it was my chance to vent a little...
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