Hi-

Has anyone removed the spring from a B-body hood hinge and reworked it/converted it to use a small hydraulic ram or shock?

Thanks.

I am not sure how you would do that.
I didn't go check, but the spring is pulling, a shock would be pushing.

But lets say you could reverse the mechanism to require pushing to keep the hood open. I think the amount of force needed seems to be a bit extreme, if the spring is the basis for that.

Complete removal might be a choice, and redoing it with hard points to mount rams. But again, the weight is pretty much double anything the new cars have for hood weight. You would have to go fiberglass to be able to support it would be my guess.

I've found 2 points that may work for the "push" action of the shock.

What this REALLY comes down to is I REALLY want billet aluminum pieces, but $650USD isn't exactly in the cards...

I did it on an A body with vert top cylinders and pump from a fox body mustang. It worked well but decided not to use it since it would still require some sort of latch mech or hood pins.

Another option would be 12v linear actuators.