I upgraded from some generic hood struts that are available for our cars to the GrimmSpeed ones recently and thought that I'd write a little review.
Once I saw that hood struts were available for our cars I knew that it would be an upgrade I wanted. The hood prop is functional, but is really something that I felt needed to be upgraded.
Here's some photos of them installed on my car.
2013-02-01_15-08-56_95 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-09-05_951 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-09-11_538 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-09-15_780 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-09-23_989 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
They worked ok for holding the hood up while I worked in the engine compartment, but the mounts didn't really look as finished as I would have liked.
The other issue with them was that their spring rate was too high for the hood on this car. If you released the hood and didn't control the rise with your hand the hood would accelerate while rising then suddenly stop moving causing the mounts to flex and make a pretty decent amount of noise as seen and heard in the following videos.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4QSdJoJuG8"]generic_fr-s/brz_hood_struts_lower_mount_movement_on_lift_video _0 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt8XOd25gu8"]generic_fr-s/brz_hood_struts_lower_mount_movement_on_lift_video _1 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg6u8y1hElU"]generic_fr-s/brz_hood_struts_upper_mount_movement_on_lift_video _0 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI3aHBVtM18"]generic_fr-s/brz_hood_struts_upper_mount_movement_on_lift_video _1 - YouTube[/ame]
Given all of this I was thinking that I'd keep my eyes out for another hood strut product in the hopes that someone else would design a better part for this task.
After a while @
GrimmSpeed started a thread (
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22658) stating that they were trying to guage any interest in a hood strut product from them. Given the quality of the oil cap, battery tie down, and master cylinder brace parts that I had already purchased from them I watched the thread to see what they might come up with.
After a bit of discussion in the thread, I decided to commit to buying a set for my car. A bit later they announced that the parts were ready to ship, and I got more excited.
A couple of weeks ago my struts had arrived, and after a bit of waiting
I had all of the necessary parts.
Last week I made some time in the afternoon to install the new struts, and took a few pictures and some videos during the process.
Here's some shots of the struts pre-assembled.
2013-02-01_15-24-21_431 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-24-13_887 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-23-45_415 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-23-39_971 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
2013-02-01_15-23-33_551 by
adventures with bob, on Flickr
The mounts and damper are of high quality, and you can see that they were designed for this car. Note the rubber grommets in this photo
2013-02-01_15-24-13_887. I mention these as they are part of what makes the GrimmSpeed product superior to the previous product I had as they keep the upper mount from deflecting during movement.
Here's a video comparing the two different products, passenger's side is generic unit, driver's is the GrimmSpeed part.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Z2ehBmYks"]Grimmspeed hood dampers compared to generic hood dampers - YouTube[/ame]
Here's a final video showing the GrimmSpeed parts on both sides. Notice how the movement is controlled and there is no clunking at the top end of the travel from the mounts shifting.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLIUqV3ZKiE"]YouTube[/ame]
Overall I'd say that this part is well designed, has an excellent finish, and is superior in performance to the other part I had on my car. I'm pleased.
