Thread: Tail gate - optional stays?

I'm surprised that no-one has commented on this, anyway what I had about 35 years ago on my Series2A tailgate lid was 2 gas struts.
Back then they were in their infancy so to speak, and we're expensive n hard to get off a wrecked car. They worked extremely well, I made my own mounts as you do out of 25 x 3 mm angle iron, I just cannot recall exactly whereabouts the struts were mounted, but if you can relate to a drawing with 3 sides angles being 90deg 30 deg, and 60 deg that would have been about it, I don't think I have any images of that's conversion, I also had 2 roof vents that came off the roof of a ford escort van set into the rear of my hardtop to increase air flow through the vehicle, anyway I still have a short gas strut on my 110 rear door to keep it open, it also works very well, cheers Dennis

Thanks very much Dennis for the info.
The parts books shows an option that is all mechanical, but I've never seen one fitted, must be rare.
I'd prefer a purely mechanical strut, to sort of keep "within era".
Somewhere I've got one off an old VW - if I find it I might try to graft it onto the S2.

Hi Jordan,

Do you mean something like this:


Here is another view - there are 2 top hinges, and a bracket / arm:


This came on my Series 2 - but I have been thinking about trying to fit a gas strut instead.. I haven't made my mind up though.

If you position the gas struts mounting points in the correct positions so it over centers when opening and closing, you can get the strut to both hold it open and hold it shut.

Basically you have to stand the mounting point off the tailgate, and the other end of the strut close to the door frame, so that when the gate is closed the door is being put under pressure to stay closed.

Originally Posted by grey_ghost

This came on my Series 2 - but I have been thinking about trying to fit a gas strut instead.. I haven't made my mind up though.

That looks like the one in the parts book.
Let me know if you decide against using it, please give me an option.

Don't you need the hinges anyway?