have you ever walked to your car with your hands full and just wished that your trunk would open by itself at the push of the trunk release button on your remote? check it out, it's almost as cool as the batmobile


i know this has been done before, but i'd just thought i'd share mine.
i had 2 extra shocks laying around (i pulled off my hood when i did my 5spd conversion this past summer and the shocks weren't holding up the hood anymore so i just took them off), so i installed one to make it open my trunk. just enlarged a preexisting hole in the driver side trunk arm, tapped it w/ the right thread, and put the shock in.

i also added an aux to my bose so i can play ipods in my car.
here's a teaser:

more pics are here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/352601/10

 

Where did you mount the lower point in the trunk?

Also you press the cd changer button and turn on the Ipod, is that it?

I want to do this for my Sirius radio

 

Trunk mod looks nice. Can you still open it all the way?

The bose aux in is found in the how to stickies.

 

mine is wired up to a switch. it's in the howto's like dan said.

the other mount point for the shock.... there's conveniently a hole that fits the shock perfectly at the back of the trunk, near the top. if you look around, you cant' miss it.

as for the trunk opening all the way, no it doesn't, but anything that can fit in my trunk will have no problem getting in with the trunklid only opening as far as it does now. also it looks kinda cool with it not opening all the way.

 

do u hav any pictures of the mod from inside the trunk so that we can get a better idea of where everything is bolted to??

 

yup, here u go:

 

any part number or specifics on this strut?
i wnet to an auto shop around here looking at them and i just didtn know waht size to get

 

do you think this would work with a spoiler on the lid also? I wonder if the extra weight would keep it from opening all the way.

 

Just get 2 of them.. I think it should work out great

 

did you read the first post? i used my old hood shock.

 

If we were to buy a longer shock, would this allow it to open the trunk lid even more or would the shock hit something? I would want to do this mod if the trunk lid would open all the way or at least near all the way.

 

If you are crafty enough you can fabricate an extension to the end of the strut. BAM!

 

if you bought a longer shock, u'd have to get one that came out further. if the shock was longer itself when fully compressed, then you have to worry about the trunk not being able to close unless you bolted the end further out.

when my trunk is closed, the shock is pretty much compressed almost all the way. you should measure just by taking out the stuff in your trunk and your back seat and laying back there. close the trunklid and hand compress the shock to see where it will line up. make a point on the trunk arm where it will line up and then let the shock come out all the way to see how far your trunklid will go up.

 

This mod would be so cool if you could make it close by itself, like audi A8.

 

That's pretty cool man :bigthumb:

 

i hooked up an older hood strut in my trunk in the same place the OP on this thread did and it pushes on the bar in my trunk so much that the trunk lid doesnt sit flat when closed...
i dont know what to do about it

 

you mean you're trunklid is not closed all the way even when it's supposed to be closed? maybe something is loose? the trunklid itself is pretty sturdy and so are the trunk arms, so i don't see how it can flex much if you put a shock on one side.

 

the trunk closes, the latch locks and everything, it just doesnt sit normal, because the shock is pushing on the arms.
i'll take some pictures if you dont believe me lol.
the shock is not closed ALL the way, there is about a centimeter of space left before its fully closed. i had to drill a hole in the arm because it wouldnt fit in that hole you put yours in, the strut was too long. maybe your strut is weaker?

 

ya, i used one of the hood shocks that were too weak to hold up my hood.

 

then i guess i'll try to wear it out some how

 

LOL, cool mod! What if you open by key, does your arm and key go flying up? Just wondering how strong it is. LOL. I think I'll try this.
Jae

 

make sure its a weak strut.
it looks like the OP got his to work by using holes already in the arm and back of trunk. but for me, i had to drill and tap threads in a new hole on the arm, not that complicated but the hoodstrut from my hood wouldnt allow the trunk to fully close.

 

haha, the trunk only opens as fast as it shows in the video. i've used my key a few times and it's not that bad.

 

This mod also comes in handy when you are in need of extra downforce. Press the trunk button and wah-lah.

 

BUMP. Anyone else try this? I got some new hood struts for Christmas, so my old ones will not be thrown away. HEHE

 

I might want to try it.

 

if not for the convenience, then do it for the extra downforce. =)

 

I'm doing the trunk strut tomorrow!

 

im trying to wear out the strut for the trunk. i put it on the hood and tooke off the other one and opened and closed the hood alot. should work.

 

This is how I did it. No loss of motion of the trunk Passenger Side worked best.







The Trunk in Action

http://home.comcast.net/~euroxo/MOV03628.MPG

 

Haha.. You dont realise how loud the "pop" is when you use the trunk release until you open it in a garage. I know I can hear mine pop right inside the door for the house..about 20 ft. away from the car with the door closed.

Thats a cool mod though. I will have to do this when I am in need of new hood shocks.

Also, can that radio mod be done on a Non-Bose unit?... I will check the stickies on how to do it, I'm just not sure if the non-Bose could..

 

im sure you could do a non Bose Unit but youll need to find out how. Prob slightly different.

 

hey euro, looks good from the video, but i can't see the pics. can you try to fix that? i'm curious to see how you did it. and what kind of shocks did you use? i didn't think the stock hood shocks had enough play in them to allow for full range of motion of the trunklid.

 

yea my bro goes oo buddy use my thingy. But he deleted them . So ill get them back up tomorrow. I used a very weak front hood stut. It all depends on where you place it to get a full range. I drilled many holes to find a perfect position. However I do know have a full range of motion and like the video shows one click opens the trunk.

They are def strong enough to pick the trunk up and mine done even hold up my hood .

 

man i can NOT wear this strut out. i can close between my hands if i press it together with all of my strength but its still too much for the trunk.
i'm just going to keep opening and closing the hood with it being the only strut on, i dont know how else to wear it.

 

mine was just like that.. im 16 i couldnt do it... my dad could.... your choice.

 

haha, it'd be a lot of work to try to wear out the shock by hand. imo, may not be worth it. if you have a '95, i'm surprised yours aren't worn out yet.

 

I meant that the strut is weak enough to be closed by hand, but is too strong for the trunk mod still.
And these are not the original hood struts. 10 year old struts, heck no man...lol.

 

you sure you used the oem hood shocks? i had my trunk and back seat all ripped out and was playing w/ different configurations and i'm almost positive that there wasn't enough travel in the shock to get a full range of motion for the trunklid.
euro, if you could show us pics of your mounting locations that would be great. i'm still probably going to leave mine as is since i'm already happy with it. plus it's easier to close the trunk when it's not all the way up.

 

bose has a different board unit. i really like to see someone can get put in an aux input for a non-bose hu.