The coil springs and torsion bars to lift the hood, trunk and engine bay lid were an inexpensive and bulletproof solution on the part of Porsche. VW too back in the day. Gas struts are the solution of the '80's and on though my Toyota MR-2 had hood props front and rear and both current Hondas have hood props on front and gas struts fro the trunk.

So anyway I'm sure the Porsche factory had specific tools that made the spring installation a quick and painless procedure. With a little practice, makeshift tools make the job workable on our 50 years later restorations. Nevertheless, I decided that my '70 -6 conversion project would get struts and I installed the engine lid yesterday. Here's my show and tell.


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Overall I'm pleased with the results. The action is different and they don't squeak. They are easy to replace when and if necessary.

Those really look slick. We'll done.

I think they work much better in the 914applications than they do in the 911 front trunk!

Nice looking car!

Love the car.

Looks like someone is walking on your fuel tank...

Nice work!

Did you make the pieces yourself? Or did you purchase kits, and if so, where did you find them? Thanks.

Looks Great, did you happen to measure the weight of the installed components before install and then the weight of the components removed? Wondering of there is any weight removed by going to gas springs.

Also interested in where the engine lid kit came from - I want one too!

The front and rear trunk struts are kits from Camp914, $50 each. To me that was cheap compared to the shot in the dark at the FLAPS wondering what would work and what wouldn't. They did their homework and all I had to do was install. You'll notice that I reinforced the body attachment on the front struts. Also the struts give a much different feel especially on the front. But the front drops down and latches nicely with a thunk on its own.

The engine bay strut was bought from Amazon as suggested in a post several months ago. He hooked the strut to the hinge but you can see I drilled and attached to the firewall. I probably would mount it In front of the R carb or even farther over to the side next time but this works just fine. Betcha Camp 914 could engineer a kit to match the F and R trunk kits and sell as a complete set....

I tried all the tricks on the rear trunk when I did my '72 sometime ago and finally got the torsion rods in place. But it wasn't fun, the paint got scratched, and I decided to try struts next time.