It came up at the Lancai Fly-in this weekend that several builders have experienced a failure of the IV/ES cabin door strut end fitting  resulting in the cabin door  falling closed and causing damage to either the pilots arm or the door frame.  The struts come standard with plastic end fittings and can strip out of the male fittings on the strut.  I have found a replacement steel fitting that fits the stock strut.  A 10mm steel ball socket for M6 thread gas spring with threaded ends.  You can purchase them at http://www.mcmaster.com .  You will need 2, (both ends use the same fitting).  The part number is 9416K74.  This item comes with a black dichromate finish.  They were $1.75 each when I bought mine.  You can also get it in type 316 stainless steel (9424K23).    After installing the steel end fittings, the weak link of the system would then be the ball stud pulling through the door frame.  It would be wise to use loctite when installing the end fittings on the gas spring.

Mike Salzman
Fairfield, CA
LNCE