R33 Boot Lid Prop

[Super Roo]

Hi all,

Thought I'd share my solution to holding the boot lid of my R33 GT-R up so it doesn't try and kill me. A little background: when I bought my car the gas struts were pretty dead. They'd hold the boot lid up but didn't really provide any assistance lifting it and a gust of wind or slight slope would send it falling down. The factory struts are built into the hinges, and are no longer available new. While my car was being resprayed I thought I'd get the paint guys to give me the strut/hinge units and see if I could get them regassed. Long story short I couldn't find anyone who could do that, but I did find someone who could replace them with new struts. The new struts were even modular so I could pop them of and change the amount of gas pressure in them as required to get them right. However there was a problem - the paint guys found the struts had fatigued the boot panel where they attach. I actually had to buy a new boot panel. We played around with the new struts, but basically anything with enough strength to hold the boot would require so much force to close that it would just fatigue the panel again. So for a long time I just had a piece of wooden dowel and a cloth to hold the boot up. Then my dad noticed that the bonnet stay from his Subaru Liberty would be about the right size, so we ordered one of those and it turns outs it's perfect!

These are the parts you'll need. I believe Subaru sells them as a pack with everything you need. You'll also need to rummage up an appropriate bolt and washer (I used a Mitsubishi bolt from my old car). After we took these photos we also found the bolt didn't quite have enough purchase, so we made up a steel backing plate with little tabs on the end to hold onto so we could feed it into position. You could also use a nutsert.

The prop comes with a rubber grommit that's the perfect size for this factory hole. You'll need to bend the prop ever so slightly so that when it's stowed it doesn't pop out at the end.

You'll need to grind a little tab off the bracket - Dremel cut off wheel is your friend. The bracket works nicely mounted like this. I added some clear film underneath to stop it marking the paint too much.

The prop rests nicely on this factory metal tab behind the right rear light. To get at it you'll need to cut a little of the boot liner carpet stuff away.

This is what it looks like in position, stowed, and from the side to show how it holds the boot up:

Anyway, hopefully this helps someone out. Please feel free to ask questions or let me know if you'd like more photos.

[PranK]

Nice! Thanks for this guide.

[I gotta R34gtr v-spec]

U can still buy the struts but $180 each from nengun.got mine regassed for $44 for both at struts r us at nerang.