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I finally finished the installation of the gas lifts for the trunk to my satisfaction. I would like to thank Sil for his original post here on Brickboard and for finding the NAPA part numbers, and Michael, who came up with the solution in the first place.

I went about mounting the base of the struts in a slightly different method than Sil (and at first it seemed simpler, but then I realized that my mounts needed additional reinforcement and it got more complicated). I mounted a support beam of angled aluminum (1/8"x1.5"x~4') that spanned the width of the trunk, and then made brackets that mounted to the beam. This worked relatively well, but the beam would torque slightly when shutting the trunk, so I reinforced it with carriage bolts that drop down from the package tray and hold the top of the beam in place. I was still getting a tiny amount of flex though, so I made a couple additional angled pieces that brace the back of the beam against the back seat wall. It all works quite well now, thankfully.

Before - Before the lifts were installed. You can see how nicely my trunk door was warped. I had a nice leak from an approximate 1/4" gap between the driver-side top of the door and the weather stripping. I was able to bend the door back into pretty much the correct shape, and it appears to seal quite well, but I haven't had the chance to water-test it yet.

Mounting Beam - Here you can sort of see the beam that I made and where the lifts mount to it. The beam is bolted to both sides of the trunk and also to the spare tire mount.

Extra Support - Here you can see the carriage bolt extending down from the package tray, and also the brace against the rear wall for the back seat.

Finished Product - They seem to work quite well, and I was still able to fit the spare tire (not pictured) in place with a little bit of work and a few washers.

And to those of you who were wondering, yes, I do have a spare star wheel detention mechanism now. I may be willing to give it away to someone who wants to install it on their passenger side trunk arm and even things out, but for the moment I am hanging on to it until I am a little more certain that I won't have any use for it again any time soon.