Rear Door Gas Strut

Just about every time we need to go into the rear load area, somehow Sluggie has been parked in such a way that the rear door closes on you while you're ferreting around in the back. Either that or the wind blows and shuts the door behind you.

Decided to buy and fit a gas struct to the rear door. The requirement as always was to ensure that no drilling of bodywork was required so that Sluggie could be returned back to factory build if ever required. Decided to purchase one from Nakatanenga. This comprises of a gas strut and two plates, one for mounting on the rear door and one for fitting on the top inside of the door frame.

It's one of those jobs that been meaning to get round to for the longest time - bought it ages ago. Been putting it off as it requires removing the rear door trim so that the existing strut and all its fittings can be removed. In any case, got on with it couple of weekends ago.

Note that before undertaking any of the work, the spare tyre was removed to reduce stress on the door hinges, struts, etc...

This is an image of the existing door strut which needs to be removed. 

From another angle you can see the plate that it mounts to on the inside of the rear load area.

None of the removal was too stressful. There is a nut plate (part 9 below) on the outside of the rear tub up in the wheel arches for the bolts to thread into. Was expecting this to stay in place when the two bolts were removed as the parts diagram suggests that the plate is riveted to the rear tub. Neither of the two rivets (part 10 below) were present. Not inclined to fit them either.

Also took the opportunity to replace all the six nuts, washers, bolts that attach the rear door to the hinges. They were slightly corroded and fancied getting a cleaner look. 

The parts changed were ordered as follows:

15 - 6 x SE108501 - Bolt M8 X 50mm Torx

16 - 6 x MRC1980 - Nylon Washer

17 - 6 x FN108046 - Hex nut, M8, Flange

32 - 6 x WA108051L - M8 washer

Since the top two hinge bolts were going to be used to mount the plate for the gas struct, thought it would be worth sourcing some longer bolts, 60mm as opposed to standard 50mm. The image below shows the difference.

The inside plate was fixed across the rear headlining, taking advantage of the 4 screw holes also used for the grab handles.

A plate was also fitted to the door - see image below. The gas strut was then attached.

All in all, quite a simple fitting procedure. The door now opens and closes really quite satisfyingly. It stays in place when open, even when Sluggie is on an angle or on a windy day.