After my little mishap (ground accident) a while back, I noticed that my door strut was not able to keep my door open.  This is in a L-IVP.  I purchased a new strut from Vern and after I installed it, I noticed that the door was not closing quite right.  There was a bulge, that from the outside, looked like it was in the location of the strut retaining bracket.

I removed the strut and the door fit correctly??? Hmmmmm?   Examining the struts a little closer, I noticed that the lengths were the same but the new strut was marked "125"  while the old strut was marked "100".  Hmmmm!!!!!!

Next step was to install the new strut but with the lower mounting reversed.  The thinking  was that this might give me the space to allow the door to fit correctly.   WRONG - The upper mounting pad failed when I attempted to close the door..  This was the original 1/8 inch phenolic piece cemented in place and retained by 3 bid e-glass each side.  It appeared that the 3-bid had delaminated from the phenolic, which then allowed the phenolic to fail..  BUMMER

I have replaced the upper mounting bracket with a 1/4" piece of carbon fiber, cemented in place, and covered with 4 bid carbon fiber each side.  While I am waiting for the repair to cure, I am considering replacing the new "125" strut with a "100" strut assuming that these #'s represent the gas pressure in PSI.  Anyone else have a similar problem????

billhogarty@direcway.com