GTR boot lid struts replacement

 so yeah the boot struts in the GTR were long past their best and quite frankly damned dangerous! The trip to Applecross confirmed i really needed to do something about it cause the lid one again tried to de-capitate me haha. So, the struts (all 30yrs of existence of them) had long cried enough and because the boot latch sticks proud of the bottom edge of the boot, when that lid comes down it's really gonna hurt if your head is still in the boot, getting the sleeping bag as it was in the this case.

Now Nissan in their infinite wisdom chose to fit closed socket joints on one end of the socket with a welded bracket at the other end to secure them to the lid. Why oh why they did this is likely another reason why as a company they are struggling to keep going. Anyhow, to replace these struts involved 2 options

• remove the two entire strut and boot lid attachments and send off to get new struts attached
• buy replacement struts and then cut off the old ones with a Dremel and hope the bracket supplied actually works

However a problem with many replacement units in that they are a touch shorter than OEM fitment with the result the boot lid doesn't open as far as OEM. Might not be a problem in real world but doesn't seem like a good starting point to limit how far the lid opens and risk smacking ones head into said boot lock latch. So after much searching and procrastination I found Up Garage USA and their full height strut replacements. They also had a handy video for getting the bottom socket off the car without resorting to a cutting disc. Far safer for sure, just use plenty of lube and take your time.... A lesson for life maybe heh heh?

Anyhow, I actually did this mid May just didn't post it. 

Boot lid opening

I also replaced the petrol flap spring as i was having to open the flap using the end of a credit card, again didn't post it at the time

Fuel flap release

Haven't done much else, I did try replacement clocks for the dash but they didn't work so back to the current ones.