Gas strut in boot

Boot stay

After putting off the installation of the boot stay, I finally committed myself to fitting in a gas strut. I had put off fitting the supplied strut, because I didn't like the GD strut or the method of fitting. So I created my own! However, like GD I have only fitted one stay, as I felt that this was sufficient for the boot lid weight.

The method of fixing is similar to that of the bonnet on my Cobra (see earlier blog). Again I bought the stuff (including a GSV8-200 adjustable gas strut) from SGS Engineering - a top company, in my opinion, with top service.

I had also bought a triangular bracket from SGS. This had a 10 mm ball fixing in place. A second bracket was made up using 3 mm thick angle aluminium, about 150 mm long, to strengthen the lip (fitted up behind the boot lip). The tip of the triangular part (see photo) was bent slightly, so that it touched the SGS bracket when in place (to add strength).

Bracket and angle aluminium that it was cut from

Two fixing holes were marked on the lip of the boot, using the SGS bracket, with the centre of the bracket about 160mm from the back of the cockpit side opening.

Two holes in side lip, seen from rear of boot

Using these two holes, the angle bracket was marked and drilled through and temporally fitted in place. Two pilot holes were then drilled down into the recess (around the boot edge), about 70 mm apart and through into the bracket to mark the hole centres. The bracket was taken off, then the holes carefully drilled out to size - I used M5 fixings. The two brackets were bolted in place, using button heads plus nyloc nuts. Edit: Forgot to mention that the two brackets were bolted together.

Two fixings in recess of boot lid surround

Bracket bolted in place, two bolts were also inserted in the recess behind the black sealing strip

Now I turned my attention to the boot lid fixing. Another SGS bracket was used here, also with a captive 10 mm ball stud. First the bracket was bent to the curve of the boot lid rib, before fixing in place using countersunk rivnuts and button heads. The open gas strut was used to find the location of the bracket

Bracket bent to curve of boot lid

Next I fitted the gas strut to the two ball studs, with the large diameter part of the strut attached to the boot lid (this will be lower than the other fixing point most of the time). Like the bonnet, the boot gas strut instructions recommend letting gas out in one second bursts. In my enthusiasm, I let out a little too much gas at around 19 seconds, so I will need to get it re-gassed! I had a spare locking mechanism from the bonnet attempt, so I used this as there was adequate clearance here.

Gas strut in place with locking mechanism

Looks a bit better than the GD strut and should be a little less rattly.

Hello and get well to Malcolm!

A friend of mine in Horsham is not feeling too well at the moment. We meet up a couple of times a year with him and wife Lin. We originally met in the South of France over 25 years ago, when we both had Citroens. Malcolm has driven my Caterham and I know he wants a go in the Cobra when it is complete, so I look forward to that blast in the 'beast', as he calls it! I know he looks at this blog on his big internet enabled tv.