Trunk struts

[crazymikey]

Our cars have the hinges with springs, which really isn't a great set up, and it's easy for the trunk to blow shut or accidentally be knocked shut.

CD5's use struts with their trunk hinges.

I got a CD5 trunk hinge & strut at the wreckers last week and tried to adapt the strut to work with the trunk. However, I failed at finding a position to mount the strut in that would work.

Has anyone installed struts or some sort of other system on our trunks the way many of us have been retrofitting Legend struts to our hoods?

[hyoslvr]

Good question mikey. I have been wondering this myself, I'd like to do this then get my trunk working off the keyless entry.

O hey did you get your hood struts replaced? Didn't they give out on you?

[crazymikey]

They seemed iffy at first, but have been working flawlessly lately.

[dj_ender]

Originally Posted by crazymikey

They seemed iffy at first, but have been working flawlessly lately.

How do you have time to do any work when your always thinking of ways to work on your CB?

[evil_demon_01]

If your CB doesn't have a spoiler, fit the Spoiler option springs to it.

[mtnbikaah]

Originally Posted by evil_demon_01

If your CB doesn't have a spoiler, fit the Spoiler option springs to it.

He's got a Jetta Flushmount on his trunk.. Apparently it's really heavy. (relatively that is..)

[crazymikey]

The VW flushmount I have is the foam style, and the thing probably weighs damn near 10lbs. It must weigh twice what a CB OEM spoiler does. It's like a giant weight on my trunk lid. It even takes some extra effort to open my trunk.

I used to have a VW flushmount that was the plastic version on my SE, and I had no issues with my trunk staying open with that because it was lighter, or as light as an OEM spoiler. My SE did not have an OEM spoiler, so it only had the regular springs which I have now. I hate the foam style one too, because it's all warped and shitty, as you can see in the pic.

I don't want to add OEM trunk springs. My intent is to add struts just for something different, because I haven't see anyone do it.

It would be possible to modify the CD5 hinges to work, but that will take some bodywork & modification to make it work, which at this point I am not willing to tackle yet.



Plastic style:

[wherm]

I put struts on my trunk. I spent a lot of time doing it too. Unfortunately, the way our trunks are hinged, they aren't easily compatible with struts. The problem I had was when the trunk was shut, the struts were still applying pressure to the hinges and the front corners stuck up and it was all out of whack. Long story short, the ball mounts are still welded in there, but I pulled the struts out and put the torsion rods back in. I used struts and mounts that I salvaged from a Mazda 3 decklid. They use the scissor style hinges which mount in the decklid gutter outside the weatherstrip, and are too tall to mount to the accord.

Not saying it can't be done, just saying that I tried it, didn't like my results, and didn't feel like spending anymore time trying to figure it out.

[evil_demon_01]

Originally Posted by crazymikey

Our cars have the hinges with springs, which really isn't a great set up, and it's easy for the trunk to blow shut or accidentally be knocked shut.

Originally Posted by mtnbikaah

He's got a Jetta Flushmount on his trunk.. Apparently it's really heavy. (relatively that is..)

Oh, I didn't see that in the original post.
Good thing the OP stated that he needed stronger springs due to his heavy Non-OEM spoiler

Originally Posted by crazymikey

The VW flushmount I have is the foam style, and the thing probably weighs damn near 10lbs. It must weigh twice what a CB OEM spoiler does. It's like a giant weight on my trunk lid. It even takes some extra effort to open my trunk.

Take it off, Problem solved.

Originally Posted by crazymikey

I don't want to add OEM trunk springs. My intent is to add struts just for something different, because I haven't see anyone do it.

Oh now I understand.
You don't actually not want springs because "

Originally Posted by crazymikey

Our cars have the hinges with springs, which really isn't a great set up, and it's easy for the trunk to blow shut or accidentally be knocked shut.

" You want struts because you want to be different.





I'm not taking the piss, I'm just showing you the basis of this thread.

If you want trunk struts, you will need to source some from another vehicle.
It really isn't that hard to setup either, just make sure you use low pressure struts - Most likely candidate is some 20 year old ones that have lost their pressure, Like some out of a legend that can no longer hold the hood up, in conjunction with the original CB springs.

[crazymikey]

It seems like I would need to completely remove the existing hinges and adapt new scissor style ones like the CD5. However, they would require modification to mount.

I think my issue using the CD5 strut was that it was too short. It was strong enough to open and close the trunk, but was too short to pivot all the way with the hinge and would bind and not close the trunk all the way, leaving it half open. However, it would open the trunk and support it's weight no problem.

Perhaps I could test fit one of the Legend struts and see if I can use a longer strut that will give enough travel and pivot to close the trunk.

I would love to adapt CD5 scissor style hinges to the trunk as an ideal outcome. In the end I could work something out, but it's definetly time consuming, and not really a project I'd care to devote a lot of time to for something that doesn't get used that often.

[evil_demon_01]

Originally Posted by crazymikey

It seems like I would need to completely remove the existing hinges and adapt new scissor style ones like the CD5. However, they would require modification to mount.

I think my issue using the CD5 strut was that it was too short. It was strong enough to open and close the trunk, but was too short to pivot all the way with the hinge and would bind and not close the trunk all the way, leaving it half open. However, it would open the trunk and support it's weight no problem.

Perhaps I could test fit one of the Legend struts and see if I can use a longer strut that will give enough travel and pivot to close the trunk.

I would love to adapt CD5 scissor style hinges to the trunk as an ideal outcome. In the end I could work something out, but it's definetly time consuming, and not really a project I'd care to devote a lot of time to for something that doesn't get used that often.

I always hated the Honda boot strut design simply because it means opening the boot entirely by hand the whole way.
That is - Is doesn't really have a "Spring" point of balance, it always seemed to need help to do anything.


Either way, you could adapt struts to the circular "D" shaped hinges fairly easily.
It's not really that complicated, you just need to figure out the strut stroke vs pressure ratio required.

[crazymikey]

Not necessarily that, but mounting locations inside the trunk. When I test fitted the CD5 strut (measures 7.5" closed, 13.5" fully extended), I attached one end to the hinge, but I couldn't find a place inside the trunk to mount the strut that would allow it to pivot enough with the hinge when closed, which obviously means the strut I'm trying to use is too short for what I want it to do.

And yes, the hinge design is really stupid, not to mention the hinges do take up a lot of space when closed, since they hang right down into the usable space.

[evil_demon_01]

Originally Posted by crazymikey

Not necessarily that, but mounting locations inside the trunk. When I test fitted the CD5 strut (measures 7.5" closed, 13.5" fully extended), I attached one end to the hinge, but I couldn't find a place inside the trunk to mount the strut that would allow it to pivot enough with the hinge when closed, which obviously means the strut I'm trying to use is too short for what I want it to do.

And yes, the hinge design is really stupid, not to mention the hinges do take up a lot of space when closed, since they hang right down into the usable space.

That depends how/where you mounted the pivot point.
Use a piece of string to start , that will give you an approximate length needed to mount 2 points.
Fold the back seat down and close the boot, then figure out the closed length.

[crazymikey]

Yeah, I spent about 2 hours farting about with it using a tape measure and stuff. I got frustrated and left it for another day.