Trunk shocks and braces

[John Larkin]

Look at this ebay ad:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Vint...4653030770QQcategoryZ6141QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Scroll down to the photos of the trunk. Those braces and trunk shocks look OEM to me. A good setup for the stereo guys who want larger speakers without adapters.

 

[ijames]

There was some talk of these a month or so ago so I found an 83-ish (not real sure) Regal in the local U-Pull-It to see what they looked like. That had much shorter gas springs installed horizontally, parallel to the package shelf, not angling down into the bottom corner like these do. You can look them up on a mail order parts website like www.autopartsgiant.com or www.partsamerica.com and see a picture to get a feel for the size. There was a lot of stuff piled in the trunk so I didn't get a great look at the mount points but I think there was a bracket bolted to the back of the seat braces at that end. My 86 has 2 or 3 holes in about the right place so even if they are not like the earlier ones they could be used for a homemade bracket. The other end was a lot different, however. On my 86 the hinge (that's what I'm calling the square tubing bent into a semicircle that bolts to the trunk lid and has the pivot pin that attaches it to the body) also has the mounting ears for the torsion bars. The 83 didn't have these ears, but instead had a different shaped end with a ball stud attached where the gas spring mounted. I don't know if you could fab up a bracket compatible with the torsion bar style hinge, or if you would have to find the other style pieces in a junkyard. Oh, for the record, the gas springs wouldn't hold up the trunk lid, just like worn out ones on the hood . Anyway, the gas springs seem readily available in the aftermarket if someone wanted to engineer the brackets.

 

[madhat]

lol did you notice this guy installed the rear seat brace?

 

[DavzGN]

I was out on the partsvoice catalog on gmpartsdirect.com
( http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/partsvoice/frameset.cfm )
and found the following part numbers for an 83 regal without torsion rods i could look at the images on the site for some reason.
hinge strap
20313440 w/o Torque Rods Sedan strap, hinge R -
Buick Century - 1978-1981 - 1981 Hinge R
- 1978-1981 - 4 Door 1980 Hinge R
Buick Regal - 1982-1987 - w/o Torque Rods Sedan strap, hinge R
Oldsmobile Calais - 1982-1988 - Sedan Strap, Hinge R
Oldsmobile Cutlass - 1978-1981 - Sedan 1980-81 Hinge R
Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme - 1980-1981 - 4 Door Hinge R R
- 1982-1988 - Sedan Strap, Hinge R

20313441 - w/o Torque Rods Sedan strap, hinge L
Buick Century - 1978-1981 - 1981 Hinge L
- 1978-1981 - 4 Door 1980 Hinge L
Buick Regal - 1982-1987 - w/o Torque Rods Sedan strap, hinge L
Oldsmobile Calais - 1982-1988 - Sedan Strap, Hinge L
Oldsmobile Cutlass - 1978-1981 - Sedan 1980-81 Hinge L
Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme - 1980-1981 - 4 Door Hinge L
- 1982-1988 - Sedan Strap, Hinge L
and
Hinge Box
20163262 w/o Torque Rods Sedan box, hinge R
Buick Regal - 1982-1987 - w/o Torque Rods Sedan box, hinge R
20163263 w/o Torque Rods Sedan box, hinge L
Buick Regal - 1982-1987 - w/o Torque Rods Sedan box, hinge L

 

[BandAid]

I bought a set of those GM trunk shcks off of ebay about a month ago for 56 bucks ,brand new GM ,exact of whats in the pics

 

[turbofish38]

FWIW. Those big tube struts are the replacement parts. The original struts had the skinny bodies like the hood struts. There was a problem with them and GM came out with the big tube kit to solve it. It included the 2 struts and all of the mounting hardware. GM part number for the kit is 20477735 MSRP $99.40. You dont need the run the torque arms with these.