LOL Tell me about it. Quite possibly the worst part about painting a hot rod, is prepping around the louvers. My guess for louvered deck lids would go towards letting cabin pressure escape.
Very true...I once asked Frankie Schneider (big winner in the 50's and 60's in the Northeast) why he tended to choose 1937 Ford flatback sedans over the coupes. His response..."there was more room in the sedan for spare parts and tools, we flat towed with a car (not a pickup) to most races". Obviously it was function over form in those days. Frankie said that they towed just fine, but they ran the floater rearends and would pull the axles out when towing. Many of the coupes were butchered to facilitate the tires and tools going in and out of the back window. The drivers would sometimes enter/exit there too.
Much to his neighbors displeasure little Johnny just could not stop playing with his shiny new hole saw. Cheaper than bullets I'd bet though?... now there's an idear! Rather than louvers or a hole saw... 50 Cal. ventilation!!!
I'll bet the first few guys had some left over from the hood, so they just put them on the deck. Why waist perfectly good holes? Craig
I think this is the actual reason. Airflow over the outside of the curving decklid causes lift and drag. The louvers make the air break away. Kinda like dimples on a golf ball too, Airflow on the trailing end breaks off more sharply and reduces drag.
Louvers on the deck lid................. I like to think of the trunk as a great place to keep the wife when cruising around. Girls think you still single and the wife gets some freah air to breath. Now that sounds like a good reason...lol.....but please dont tell my wife that.....lmfao Leon
I remember an article on the subject way back during the early days at Bonneville. As others have stated it was to release built up air pressure in the rear of the car. Conversely, as the early cars were hopped up the already marginal cooling systems could benefit from louvers in the hood to add additional engine cooling.
yup, reducing turbulence. the chapparal winged race cars had louvers on the curves of the fenders for this reason.
I'm not sure, but after giving it some thought, I'd almost bet that those louvers might leave more air in than out. It seems to me that air moving over the top of a roadster would cause a venturi effect that would cause a vacuum inside the car, louvers might actually help to relieve that condition, along with the back draft vacuum that occurs behind the deck lid by kinda creating a little suction back there. Be interesting to actually wind tunnel one.
thank for those Kev. I remember that 37 well! it was done to lighten the car. frame and everything was full of holes. Imagine a restorer welding those up....Jim
In the 60's we used to drag race an ' FJ Holden' sedan with a hot Ford sidevalve in it. Shape was not unlike the bottom coupe in the pic above, but a 4 door sedan with the stripped out back door skins and boot lid skin welded into the body. We gutted the entire car to save weight, no trims, no insulation, no gl*** anywhere, and were worried about the build up of pressure in the boot area. We didn't have access to a louvre press, and the panels were all welded on anyway, so we took to her with a 2" holesaw and did exactly that to the body! Of course the fact that the car was unibody construction and the rear quarter panels etc that we riddled with holes were significantly structural didn't sort of occur to us at the time. Cheers, Glen.
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