Manta Mirage rear engine cover

[Blueovalz]

That looks like it would work. The difference in strut length between open and closed appears to be well within the range of the struts shown in the photo. The support plates on the bodywork appear to be a halfway decent way of distributing the forces on the fiberglass at a location on the bodywork, and in such a way, that may prevent it from being warped by the constant pressure of the compressed strut.

If your looking for a method that does not include gas struts, but instead relies on muscle to lift the panel up, and allows the the panel's own weight to hold it open with some free-folding stops, check out a couple of my YouTube videos (another person was asking me about these, which is why I published the video). This obviously requires the weight of panel to hold itself open, so I've also drilled aligned 1/4" holes in the arms so that a PIP pin can be inserted into both overlapping segments, thus locking them in the open position to prevent the wind or such from pushing the panel closed inadvertently. In fact, I use the PIP pins to attach it to the frame and the body panel as well, so that they can be removed in less than a minute for those times when I'm working on one side of the car or the other (the rear panel only), and I need to get the prop out of my way.