Sticky #2: Rear Deck Lid (Bonnet) Struts

Read some previous posts and decided to look around for new lid lifts. My existing units measured around 75 lbs when pushed against a scale and would not stay open.
Contacted Sacks and they identified several that were close to existing model.

Here's their reply;
SG314002 17.2" ext, 11" comp, 85#, 8mm eyelets
SG302001 17.4" ext, 11.5" comp, 85#, 8mm eyelets
SG314032 17.2" ext, 11" comp, 114#, 12mm eyelets
SG314003 16.7" ext, 10.25" comp, 121#, 12mm eyelets

These are the lift supports I have which closest fit your needs. You can purchase them at O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pep Boys or Autozone. You can also find a wide variety of lift supports at www.liftsupportsdepot.com.

I purchased #SG314032 for my non-winged '72 Pantera. My deck lid has the dress up underside
so that does add a little weight.
These work perfect. Pop the hood and it raises by itself in a controlled manner and stays open. These new units are 115LBS, have the correct eyelet ends with slots that match my (i think) original double mount ends. Cost was around $23 each at O'Reilly.

Thank you for getting me on track.

The ones that Hall sells as a non-stock replacement, when you cross the number over on the label, do show as that Dodge number. They also cost something like $28 each in a NAPA store.

I bought my first set from Hall. Installed them and the hinges where the attach to the decklid IMMEDIATELY pulled out of the decklid.

The only thing I could do there was braze them internally through the slit and they held. Problem is the heat warped that part of the lid.

I got that under control by shimming down the hinge mount flanges to the roof by 1/8".

I noticed that the deck was no longer pushing itself up, and was sliding down about 5 or 6 inches yesterday.

I have no wing.

I also think I see movement in the attachment of one of the hinges and the decklid.

There is NO visible rust on the decklid in the hinge area.

I haven't come up with a solution to this as I just noticed the entire mess yesterday.

Needless to say, I am not a happy camper.


I personally like the look of the original fat lift shocks.

I did hear mention that the rebuilt originals will not last for long. They seem to be a temporary solution as they quickly loose thier charge.

I personally can not verify that, since I have not gone that route.

I am going to an Italian Car day show today and will see if there are other Panteras there and what they have.

Any info on this I will post.

I am not sure how the factory originally attached these hinges to the decklid. There is no exterior evidence of that.

If the braze has not held, not sure where to go with this. Doesn't look like they can be converted to bolts.

Not a good scenario all in all.

I saw one car that has electronic lifts like on the current mini-vans. It works nice and he had it tied electronically to his key fob. I'm not sure if in the case of some type of an electronic failure the deck can be lifted manually or not? Pantera-electronics, i.e., Jon Haas has a design he makes that need an air compressor to work. I have a set here.

The issue that I have with that design is that the struts are larger in diameter then the replacement struts. That puts them too close to a couple of the tubes on my headers.

The other thing is that I'm out of room to put another compressor gracefully in the car.

I'm trying to encourage Haas to build a set of the self powered struts but as always with him, he looks at marketability and what he already has done so there is little hope there.

Every so often I look for electronic struts that would just happen to fall into a direct replacement scenario but so far the Pantera ones are too short to match anything currently in production. Of course there is always the possibility that one of the exotic companies will make them for a reasonable price of $1,000 each? For that probably the polarity will be wrong and you will probably need to rewire the entire car to make them work for sure?

Hi Doug,
Sounds like you've been down this road a few times. DOES asked a question and I responded with the unit I recently installed. My previous units were a weak 70 lbs and couldn't keep it up. Some here mentioned the stiff 135 units were overkill. Some mentioned 90 to 100 lbs would be perfect. So I bought the SACKS 115 lbs units. They lift and close easy and I'm not seeing any lid bow due to compressed pressure. They are an exact fit to my original body hardware and cost $25 each delivered.

I also machined some SST end bushing that center position the units.

I'm a newbie and made the best decision based on this board of which you contribute some pretty good advice. I'm guessing I'll be addressing this again in a few hundred cycles.

I'll try to add a few pictures for fun.
Regards to all.

The above photo is the previous shock along with new shock packaging.

Picture below is shock connection with sleeve