Before...

...and after.

This is a step-by-step guide on fitting bonnet lifters to a Nova. However, this particular kit can be fitted to a Nova, but others can also be fitted to Corsa, Astra, Cavalier and Calibra. And the big plus point of this kit is that there is NO drilling required (Astra/Kadett version will need drilling to fit). It's literally all "plug and play" hardware. You simply remove bolts already on the car and replace them with bolts in the kit. The whole installation should take you no longer than 15 minutes as it all snaps into place. The otherside is exactly the same procedure.

However, it may be the particular kit that I received, but it was not at it's best quality. All the bolts and threads were very bad, infact many bolts did not screw in correctly. I had to re-tap and die the bolts again by hand to get them working as they should. If you need to do this then you need a 9mm with 1.25mm pitch tap and die set, which is a very common size.

With that aside the kit was easy to fit (albeit the instructions are in German only). I should point out that the struts are VERY hard to compress. So hard that I thought they were faulty because I could not compress them with may hands or even pushing one end onto the floor. I had second thoughts of sending them back but I thought I'd fit them to the car quickly (as they can come off again easily). And they work! The only down side was that it lifted the bonnet up slightly when closed, by about 3mm on one end. To this day I can't seem to rectify that but it's no big problem.

• The spoiler came from http://www.pvdnet.co.uk. Price includes P&P and VAT.

Just before you start, make sure you note the following:

• The bonnet lifters will be near impossible to compress by hand, so don't think they are faulty when you receive them. Once they are installed on the car, the bonnet should lift itself up once the bonnet is about 1 foot in the air.
• There were four right angled circular clips that are supplied with the kit. You snap on the lifter cup, insert the clip into the small holes in the cup and flip over the clip and it snaps around the neck of the cup. This is to stop the cup from coming off the ball bolt.
• Once the bonnet lifters are snapped onto the ball bolts, these can be easily removed again by slightly tilting them to one side and pulling up. They should just pop off.
• Install the bonnet lifter thickest side uppermost.