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Years ago I sprayed a lot of Waxoyl in to my boot lid. The boot struts no longer held it open, I thought that was it.

I bought a pair of uprated struts on eBay, previously recommended on this forum. I should have done it earlier, they work great.

busheytrader wrote:Years ago I sprayed a lot of Waxoyl in to my boot lid. The boot struts no longer held it open, I thought that was it.

I bought a pair of uprated struts on eBay, previously recommended on this forum. I should have done it earlier, they work great.

Geez, how much Waxoyl did you use?

It dribbled out over the rear bumper during the next 5 summers.

When I removed the original struts just now, there was no resistance in them at all. They were probably close to washed out at Waxoyl time.

New struts are not charged at manufacture, except when supplied for immediate use. Specialist retailers hold the struts with no pressure until required, then charge them.

This is simply done by putting therm into a pressure chamber & pumping the chamber up to the required pressure. The seals work like a one way valve, allowing external pressure into the strut, where it is retained by the seal.

I have had my boot struts recharged by both a retailer in their shop, & a mobile bloke, who charges your struts in a pressure chamber in his van at your premises. They have required recharging about every 6 years.

Hasbeen

At 42 years old I thought the original seals would be past it for reconditioning.

There are firms that will do this via post and at least one parts specialist who stocks them new.

It makes a change having a boot lid that doesn’t have to be held up. My pal’s yellow FHC also on a V reg is a pre common underbody car and has a locking boot stay like the bonnet. Probably more practical when the cars reach classic status.

I replaced my struts when I got the car in 2006. They've been fine ever since. A friend with a year older car has the mechanical stay. Someone closed the trunk for him, it didn't release and it warped the trunk lid as it was still locked when the trunk lid came down. It stood up in the front left corner when latched. He wanted to uprate it to the struts, looked like he could but never did, hard to get the associated hardware. Never knew at the time you could recharge them. There was a guy in Vancouver Van Dusen British Car Show that did it. He was from New Zealand.

My FHC had gas struts but it also had the gutter bracket for the early click type. So when my DHC started to have a gas strut problem I swapped them over and put an old style telescopic clicker on the FHC.

My '81 had the struts but they were shot when I got the car 18 years ago. They seemed to be rare to get and, after carrying a stick prop for a while, I got hold of an early car mechanical strut. The later cars still came with the tapping in the boot lid so it was only necessary to tack weld the bottom bracket to the gutter. It has worked well ever since although, as noted, you do need to remember to release the catch before closing the lid.

My spares car had a mechanical strut. It was hanging from the boot lid, with the rusted out bit of boot gutter still attached to it. I decided not to use that system.

Hasbeen

Interestingly, the eBay seller also has for sale aluminium carb mounts for those with the 2.0L 8V or 16V engine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325423823964 ... Swr9ZjKe~B