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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: DYNAMAT XTREME RACE BOND

August 18, 2026

Goodguys 2025: Street Rod and Street Machine of the Year Bring the Heat to Columbus

July 16, 2025

Beauty & POWER

Upon its introduction, the ’55 Chevy became an instant success, and over the years, it has remained a favorite of Chevy enthusiasts, with the ’55 Bel Air hardtop being one of the most popular.

The white ’99 Silverado was beginning to show the wear and tear of fighting the highway wars the last few years. The once proud and pampered show truck—a standard cab shortbed with matching cab-high camper shell—hadn’t spent much time in daily service until recent years, but now it bore its share of dings, dents and scratches. It was obvious that the 50,000 miles on the odometer hadn’t done the 5.3-liter V-8 much good. Part of the reason for the dissipated performance was the exhaust system, a very tired, less-than-top-quality aftermarket after-cat that had started banging, squeaking and leaking.

Installing a new after-cat from MagnaFlow was at the top of this owner’s agenda. He acquired a MagnaFlow (part No. 15617) polished stainless steel after-cat performance system for his Chevy, and because he’s in the automotive business and has a lift at his own facility, all he had to do was enlist the help of a colleague experienced in exhaust system installs to lend a hand with the hookup.

TUNNELED, NOT FRENCHED

Street rod trends are constantly changing. What once looked good now seems dated, and so it will someday be for today’s cutting-edge look. Eventually, some of these trends come back into vogue—hence the birth of terms like newstalgia. Other aspects of this hobby never change; the tires are still round and cars take up more of our time and money than we’d like to admit.

Spotlighter

Billet Hood Strut Installation on Your S197 Mustang

A Simple Fix for an Annoying Problem

When you lift the hood of your 2005-2014 Mustang and engage the prop rod, do you feel a little shortchanged? Well, Steeda Autosports has developed a billet hood strut kit designed to replace those clumsy prop rods.

Author

Chris Tobin

Story & Photography

We watched as the installers at Advantage Performance Center in Riverside, California, installed the hood strut kit (PN 555-0650, $199.95) on this ’07 Shelby GT500. The kit consists of two machined 6061 aluminum brackets, a pair of rubber bumpers, two OEM-quality gas struts, the ball studs to mount the struts, and a one-page instruction sheet. It is a simple installation that took less than 30 minutes, including the time required to pause for pictures.

This is definitely a project that virtually any hobbyist mechanic can perform in his garage or driveway in an hour or less. The kit bolts into factory holes, and no drilling or modification to the car is required. It will, however, require a second person to help support the hood when the hinges are loosened and when the struts are being installed, so bring along a friend or coax your significant other into the garage.

Follow along as we install the Steeda billet hood strut kit, but remember that this is just an overview of the installation process, so always follow the supplied instructions. If you are not comfortable with your mechanical abilities, have a professional install it for you.

While relatively inexpensive, the Steeda billet hood strut kit is of excellent build quality. It installed easily, and as expected, it makes an excellent addition to any new-model Mustang. With the kit installed, the prop rod can be removed from the car altogether, as it is no longer needed. The Steeda kit also delivers a few unexpected advantages over the factory prop rod; first, the hood lifts higher, making engine maintenance (or engine showing-off) easier; and second, the hood is now square when it is opened, since it is supported by gas struts on both sides. With the factory prop rod, the hood is supported only on the passenger-side front corner, allowing the hood to twist and droop under its own weight.

Steeda developed an excellent solution for a simple flaw in the new Mustang’s otherwise excellent design. If the prop rod bothers you as much as it does some Mustang owners, check it out—you may be happy to lift your Mustang hood again.

1-2. The clear rubber bumpers have an adhesive backing and are installed on the top edge of the bracket to keep it from scratching the paint on the bottom side of the hood.

3. With your helper supporting the hood, the upper hood bracket bolt needs to be removed and the lower bolt has to be loosened.

4. Next, the bracket is slid beneath the lower bolt. After the bracket is aligned, replace the upper mounting bolt and the bracket will be secured.

5-6. The machined ball mount has two different contours; the tighter radius (seen on the right side) mounts toward the fender below the fender bolt closest to the firewall, as shown.

7. Before installing the gas strut, the completed mounting brackets should look like this.

8. When installing the passenger-side bracket, make sure that the notch at the top of the bracket clears the hose clamp for the windshield washer hose, as shown.

9. Before installing the gas struts, carefully lower the hood to check for proper fit and alignment. In our case, the hood alignment was still dead on, with straight fender-to-hood gaps, so no correction was necessary.

10. The gas struts snap onto the ball studs. To make it easier to install the strut, a small flat-head screwdriver can be used to slightly pull the tab on the back of the strut head.

11. To remove the factory prop rod, simply unbolt the single retaining bolt on the radiator core support and remove the entire assembly.

12. The completed installation will look like this.