Does anyone do or know any shops that still do the old style Clam Shell Louvres in or around Central Jersey?
PM Jerry (HomemadeHardtop57)......he did mine on two cars and his die is pretty damn close to the old clamshell style.........he does great work......my shoebox Victoria has 120 punches in the hood...... CB
The louvers that your speaking of can be made off of the louver press that low buck tools sells. I just bought the head and made my own frame. These louvers are about 2 1/2" across. I have less than $500 into the press that I made. If you plan on doing any amount of them your better off making the louver press. The insert woulda cost me over $400 to have punched, now I own the press and I'm everybodies best friend!?
Kirk, that looks great! Think a Lowbuck louver press kit might end up on my Christmas list this year! Steve
Not to hijack but I've always wondered how you keep the water out of the louvered trunklids and now I would add roof inserts
I guess some sheet metal strips with strong magnets seems to make the most sense to me. I dont know what other tricks people use aside from drivin real fast.
Interesting post about building you own press. I remember seeing the one Kiwi Kev made a few years ago and loved that thing. Mighty nice thinking gents, I understand how it would make a lot of "best friends". Thanx! ~sololobo~
Here's a pic of the frame as I was building it. Utilized some free I-beam and bout 4 hours of time. I wanted the throat to be deep enough for the larger panels, works great with virtually no deflection. It's sturdy enough to punch louvers into 16 ga sheet metal. Now I just gotta make legs with castors & paint it up. I bought the 3" die which is about 2 5/8" after being punched and I also have the 1 1/2" die that interchanges.
I plan on leaving them open on the insert but if I were to waterproof it I'd contact cement a piece of rubber bath tub liner on the underside of the insert. It's sold by the ft and is like 4'-5' wide.
The sealing the louvers from the bottom of the insert is just an idea at the moment. The car isn't on the road as of yet so we'll see as time goes on. Seeing that the insert is aluminum and it is now painted to match the body color I would suppose that if water collected it'd just evaporate over time?? I know several people who run heavily louvered hoods and they never had an issue with water getting into the engine compartment, luck perhaps?.....dunno?
I knew a guy with a early ranchero with a hood full of louvers and he would put duct tape under them in the winter.
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