Need Your Help - Trunk Lid Torsion Bar Alternative

A press console for the mfr I worked for was re-designed about 1991, and included a lift top, with a mounting point for a gas strut, which, for the sake of cheapness, was never installed. Once I was at the factory, rebuilding a customer's piece of equipment in the area where these new consoles were being built. I asked one of the factory engineers how they expected to keep the cover open for service, and he replied, "Use your head ", and he meant that literally.
Then I saw where a new console in build had a section of pallet wood cut to length, doing the job, and wise-*** had inscribed it with a fake part number.....