Does anyone know how to cut louvers? I know that it can be done with a machine, but can it be done in your garage. I vaguely remember JC Whitney having some kind of hand held die in thier old catalogs that looked like it could be used for home body work.
Take a look at the attached site link it has some interesting ideas on punching louvers. http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=182&highlight=louvers
Yep... I'd hate to do something like this by hand.. I could only get 251 in there.... See what happens when someone says "louver the hell out of it.."
The worst thing about lowbucking is that so many good pieces of body sheet metal get destroyed by attempts at this kind of false economy. Punching louvers with a louver press and proper dies isn't that difficult once you practice, practice, practice, and have piles of old junk hoods, decklids,and doorskins laying outside that are full of slots. But doing them by hand? Find your local guy who has a press and, after talking to his customers and seeing his work pay, hire him and pay him the $ to get done what you want done. Sometimes you should save your bucks and get the absolute right thing done.
wah wah wah... no need to worry, I drive mine all the time in the rain, not a problem, but if you're scared, stay home when it rains..
Check out this site for info. I bought one of their louver presses and working on getting it running. http://www.lowbucktools.com/MM6.html
No probs so far. The 2nd worst rainstorm it's been in. The front distributor probably helps, but rolling down the highway, rainwater seems to flow with the air going up and over the louvers. On hot days, the cowl vent stays closed in town since the hot air exhausting out of the hood top louvers goes in the cowl vent. Highway speeds, airflow changes and you can pick up ambient air with the cowl vent open.
I've seen many hood-less and no hood-sided hot rods driving in the rain. Driving in the rain isn't the problem. Parking in the rain is when it will seep in to areas you don't want it in, you need to have something to keep the rain out of the carburetor. Marty McF.
I have a set of louver dies for my Williams Lowbuck beadroller - never used (and apparently not too easy to do) but they do give you the option of any length and you can do them at home - if you have a beadroller that is Steve
the lowbuck die is 2 1/2", that is their only die, they do not have other dies. the smallest I do is 3" and the most popular.
Im with uncle johnny on this one too. I bought a pair when Lowbuck first came out with them. They were used on one sample piece, and have never, or will ever be used again. Wish I had my hundred bucks back!
I bought the Lobuck louver press and am trying to get it to work. Been playing with setting different depths of the die. I'm having problems with tearing in the corners of the louver and excessive distortion of the metal around the louver. It doesn't come with a female die for the male to press into, just a hole and a couple pieces of rubber at each end. Anyone have any tips for me?? TIA
My buddy and I bought one of those Good Times Louver press kits back fifteen or twenty years ago. You got the hydraulics and full size blueprints for cutting the steel tubing. You welded it together. We put it on a Saab rear axle so it could be towed. Actually thought about doing louvers at flea markets but too many damn sidewalk engineers to deal with. Lot of hoods went through this machine since we have owned it and we only ate one. A '50 Merc hood we "stuttered" a louver and had to give the guy a hood we got from Brad in MA who took the hood with the off louver in even trade. Sweated a couple of times doing compound curves, like '32 rear deck lids, knowing if we screwed up we were in trouble. We were charging $1 a hole up until two years ago, the same price we paid in the '50s when we went down from NY to PA to have louvers punched at Almquist Engineering. Now we get $2 a louver.
By the way owning a louver press is cool, you can louver your lunch pail, your file cabinet fronts, anything you can think of. I just louvered the front lid from a $#%&^, you know the cars you can only talk about on Samba.com. Makes people do a double take when they walk past the car.
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