Beware of ebay hood struts
 

Thickness of brackets do not leave nearly enough length on the stud to tighten nuts. These are the "sokie tech" struts. See pics. The pic that has a nut on it is fully tightened (probably overtightened to get more purchase). The other is stripped. Guess I'm going to need to cut and weld a new stud on.

The NRG's have the same type of hinge but it is beveled to go around the hinge and stay still.

The bracket on the sokie tech's is kind of folded over as well to fit the oem hinge, but the internal locking washer the instructions says to use between the hinge and their bracket majorly limits the amount of threads available on the stud. Does the NRG bracket require you to use any type of washer between it and the oem hood hinge?

No, it has the bracket go over the stock hinge and then the stock nut goes over. It can be possible to have them on the wrong side, but it would just make it not let the hood close.

I ordered the same ones you had when I bought my FD in 2015 (Sokie Tech). Same problem, and after a day or 2, the bracket would move around because I couldn't get it tight enough and wound up stripping one of my OEM nuts. I ended up not using the washers provided (because it was too thick), and using a new nut on each side from my local body shop. It has never moved since.

Mine worked like a charm :)
The struts are so-so on quality, but those can be replaced by proper stuff from elsewhere.

Man, you got lucky. I stripped the threads off the actual stud/bolt in the hood, I wish I'd only stripped a nut. I'm going to attempt to re thread the stud to a slightly smaller size and not use any washers this time. Very poor/incorrect instructions, and the brackets themselves definitely leave a lot to be desired. I have no promblem with the struts themselves. They seem ok. They lift and hold the hood very well.

There is a guy named "mattster03" (no relation) over on norotors that did a really nice kit for our cars:
http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=21283.0

It's been a couple years since he did a run. If there's interest, I'm sure he's do another.

I recently bought his kit, works like a charm...brackets are nice and sturdy. I believe he has a online store where you can buy them directly.

Spark do you know if these are to heavy duty for a carbon hood

Why wouldnt you use a washer or a spacer? Its not rocket surgery.

Answer of the year right there.... lol Probably didn't even read the op post.

Took the car to the body shop today to have a friend look at this setup. Didn't take him long to show me how the geometry of the struts is all wrong, the bracket design is poor and that the struts themselves are "harbor freight quality" as he put it. Needless to say, everything got chucked in the trash, he realigned the hood, and he's going to build me a shortie hood prop for the left rear of the engine bay. Sokie Tech--two thumbs down. I should've known better. Overseas Ebay junk.

Wait.

Are you telling me cheap eBay shit, is in fact, cheap eBay shit?

Live and learn. I've been there.

Seriously, give this guy a shout:
Secondbolt Racing ? Hood Damper/Strut Kit

Super cool guy. Part of the community.

:icon_tup:

True. And to think I've spent the last 2 years of my build removing all the ebay junk that previous owner(s) installed on my car. I should've known better, even though there are oddly some positive reviews of these dampers around here. I will look into the dampers you linked. Thanks.

I try, lol.

The thing to remember is most cheap Ebay stuff will be fine AT FIRST. It will be shiny in the box, maybe even go on and work nicely. So you hear good things, "Opened up the box, damn what a nice part!"

It's what happens in the months and years to come that separates a good part from a crap part. Any hobo with a TIG welder can make a manifold and it will look great but give it time and that joker will crack and warp on you. Also many times the coatings on parts aren't great, they flake off, corrode easily, etc.

The FD is a Japanese supercar and deserves parts that match that status. That doesn't mean you have to break the bank to mod or maintain the car, just be *smart* about buying things. Get on a group buy, buy used, trade for parts, etc.

Dale

That's good advice. This is the first off brand ebay part I have bought for this car or my previous FD, and it will likely be the last. Momentary lapse of judgement.

We've all made 2am eBay mistakes. :P

Second bolt racing, definitely will be checking them out!

Here's a few images of the secondbolt racing hood strut brackets. As you can see they are very well made...very sturdy. They use both of the hood bolts per side, as opposed to the e-bay ones that only use one per side...in the last image you can see how much thread is left on the bolt.

https://preview.ibb.co/kbtrtb/Whats_...t_18_16_27.jpg

https://preview.ibb.co/j2wpeG/Whats_...18_16_28_1.jpg

https://preview.ibb.co/dviPDb/Whats_...t_18_16_28.jpg

https://preview.ibb.co/cD3PDb/Whats_...t_18_16_29.jpg

I just wanted to say thanks to Matt for his post as I contacted the seller in the link (his name is Matt too), he is very responsive and accommodating. I mentioned to him that I wanted this for my CF hood and he shipped my order with lower force struts. :bigthumb:

I've been itching for these for a while but I knew that the ebay ones weren't that great. So yeah I'm pretty stoked about it.

Yea those brackets look way better, but I'm just as concerned with them having static pressure pushing the hood up when its closed and leaving a gap between the hood and the fender. That seemed as much of an issue to me as the poor brackets with my kit. How are the secondbolts in this respect?

My fenders are currently off the car, so I can't really tell if there are any issues. Once I put the fenders back on I'll report back here