The other day I was thinking about a hood strut kit. Decided $50 was too much. I knw my taurus has hood struts and there is a million of em in the junk yard. So i set out to make them work.
I Purchased them along with two out of four ball ends i needed. Found some perfect size screws to work as the other ball ends. I also purchased a 8x1.25mm tap and 17/64 drill bit. Removed the upper screws that held in the hood and taped the holes larger.
I then removed the appropreate bolt on the fender, replaced with my new "ball end" (really just a proper sized screw) and that was it.
The kit fits perfect, looks factory, has motorcraft part numbers on them and lifts the hood about 2" more than normal.
Heres the final product. I do eventually plan to find proper ball ends to replace the lower screws. The tap set cost me $11 and the struts were $3-4.
Picture 1
Picture 2 
