Sure Rick, hope these help.
I like the brass wire because of the spring it has and the fact that it does not look heavy. The aluminium tube is slightly wider than the distance between the fender wells which are drilled to accept the hinge. The brass wire has 90* bends that fit in those holes. The slight bend in the middle helps lift the hood up and I installed two pieces of styrene to stop the hinge from flipping forward to far. It's about as simple as I could do it, without over engineering. Here one Rider is doing, it's a lot cleaner than this.
Here you can see the engine from the Revell 50 Ford pickup with Ardun heads mocked up.