Found an Autozone with the hood struts with balls!
E95212. Bought em. Soon as the baby is out of the shop, gonna have a hood lift mod.!
Funny, the Stabilo's at PEP boys didn't have the struts with balls (as per the how-to).
The how-to said Autozone didn't.
FWIW, the how-to isn't wrong, but it does pay to keep checking all the sources.
