I've had stock hinges with steel hood, fabbed shock mounts for fiberglass hood, flip forward buick hood mechanism, and several functional modifications to the current setup posted above that I first fabbed up in 2010.
Nothing is simpler than a hinge that simply pivots at one spot like the factory hinges. Tweaking one would have been a pre-teenage skill for me. Mods to convert to strut can be just bolt on. If you're skeered, stick to simple.
I haven't patented my current hood system & have explained it hundreds of times to people thinking about building such a thing. Have seen one kinda similar (slow as f***) on a black vette on Lokar car show, but never seen anything else remotely as complex. Anybody wanting to make their own is welcome to copy it and more than welcome to improve on it.. Always room for improvement.
Next will be my bedcover mechanism that 4 hinges will slide open in almost a straight up motion, going back enough to clear my rear visor, but not so far back as to look stupid. will need to be solid enough to drive on highway almost 3 feet up in the air on a level plane to allow small drift trike motorcycle ( or wife's stuff) to fit underneath. Was close to being initially done designing before having to work 2 jobs over 70 hrs a week lately. Hopefully can get back to soon next year,
