FYI - DIY rear Deck Lid Shocks and Hood Shocks

[550SPYDER]

Alright, I know it's not rebuilding a G50 or pulling the motor, but just wanted to post this in the event that anyone was interested in the fact that one person with two hours can install two rear deck lid shocks and two front hood shocks all within earshot of a 6 year old who by the way loves to ask her mother what "new words" mean when she hears them from dad...

Here is my set up.

a. 1982 930
b. factory engine pad installed - just to make it "more" challenging...
c. Large Andial Intercooler
d. AC Compressor

Things you will need

1. 1/2 inch PVC Pipe cut to length to support rear lid and hood at their maximum expended position based on the throw of the shocks
2. small needle nose pliers
3. medium needle nose pliers
4. hood shocks
5. Smaller set of Vicegrip pliers

Rear Deck Lid -

Starting from the passenger side - real straight forward
1. Place PVC on motor mount bolt and Whale Tail Grill Bolt on Drivers Side
2. Passenger Side - remove the shock point connected to the whale tail - one clip, one pin
3. Passenger Side - remove the shock point connected to the firewall

Drivers Side - much more obstructed can only use your fingers to remove clip and pin on fire wall
1. Place PVC on motor mount bolt and Whale Tail Grill Bolt on Passenger Side
2. Driver Side - remove the shock point connected to the whale tail - one clip, one pin
3. Driver Side - remove the shock point connected to the firewall

HINT - Make the PVC a little longer than you need and use the excess length as a BOW to raise and lower the Deck Lid while trying to align the pins

Front Hood –

(HINT - make sure that you do the lower pin first when reassembling the shocks and make sure that you have the upper portion free floating inside the two cross members before you connect the lower pin, shock and clip)

Passenger side is so easy I am not even going to go into how to replace that one. HOWEVER, the Drivers side lower socket is a &^%$ing pain in the A@@

Here is what I came up with after you remove the drivers side shock - take a small pair of needle nose pliers and working from the wheel well towards the center of the car, pre-insert the pin just enough for the pin to intrude into the cross member. Then carefully insert the lower part of the shock being careful not to dislodge the pin (Good news is that there isn’t really anywhere for the pin to disappear to so you can always find it if it comes out (and it will come out)). After you have the shock in the socket between the cross members and the pin pre-inserted in to the hole closest to the outside of the car, wiggle the shock while applying pressure on the pin with the tips of your fingers to insert the pin into the mounting hold in the shock. Now, here comes the tricky part. After you have the pin in the mounting hole in the cross member and then through the hole in the shock, there is no longer enough play in the shock OR room for your hand for you to push the pin any further with your fingers, so using the friction provided by the shock hole and the pin, use the shock to align the pin with the inner most cross member hole and guide the pin through the inner mounting hole – it took me three tries to get this done.

Alright there you have it, hope this helps someone.