I am looking into investing in a louver press for the shop. I live in central Ohio and was curious of how much desire there is for such a service. I would imagine it would be a 25$ setup fee and 2$ per louver.
On top of "setup" fees, consider layout fees, actually, make sure to always have a clear line of communication with the customer as to his desires, many times someone will say "just do what looks right to you, be cautious here for sure, It seems some people aren't sure what they want..........until you've finished.
You need to "know your audience" meaning what is the core category of car that you expect to serve because there are at least a dozen louver styles/sizes and louver dies can get expensive, especially when they aren't being used. Also, dies don't stay sharp forever so keep in mind how to go about getting them sharpened, generally, this is not something the average guy can do in the shop.
I have louvered many a hood at a previous job and always thought the setup/layout fee was bullshit…you can’t louver a hood without doing layout first. Just make a simple per louver cost and that’s it. I would not louver a hood that someone else laid out.
Agree, per job, but for sure not across the board and as you know, every job has their own set of special needs to pull it off. One example was the hood for my 66 Suburban, I wanted both "innie" and "outie" louvers. The guy that punched mine said this was the largest hood he had ever done and consequently he need to build a support cradle, I assume because he was a one man operation. He also installed a lazer on his louver press and they are straight as an arrow, and just the layout I requested.
A Friend of mine did louvers . He used a cheap laser pointer to line up the louvers with . It worked perfectly. He also had a strip of metal that had louvers punched in it . He would use it to help the customer decide where and how many louvers could be done
The Jalopy Journal
