I was working on my 1984 BMW 633 CSi when I knocked loose a prop and the hood fell on my head. Sadly, this isn’t the first time this has happened. I used a long roll of strong cardboard to prop the hood up, and before that I used a piece of wood. It’s not very elegant.

Today, I finally got sick of it. I found a good used pair of hood struts. How do I know they’re good? Together, they hold up a hood in cold weather (close to freezing). In warmer weather they’ll do better yet.

The struts detach using clips that you can slip free of their respective studs. You can do this using your fingernails, if you don’t care how they look afterwards. Better yet, use a flat-tip screwdriver.

I tend to lose about one out of every four clips I remove, and I destroy maybe one out of every three clips I remove. I hope for your sake you’re smarter than I am.

With the clips off, the hood struts are easy to remove and re-install. It’s good to remember that the thick part goes at the bottom.

It’s trivially easy to slip the clips back on.

No surprise, I offer good used hood struts. The dealer price for these clips surprised me. As I recall they were $6 each so if you don’t wanna pay that much, keep me in mind. I charge $1 each.