After a recent topic on exhuast wraps, I saw John mention hood louvers he had seen. I saw some a few months back in one of the offroad mags. I have been sketching out a design and have a sheetmetal shop that can make them. They would be aluminum and most likely i would have them finish them black. I don't have a price yet, but when working with sheetmetal it is cheaper to get things in quantity.

I guess after posting this I will have to get the finishing touches on my drawings and get them down to my contact.

I first want to cut out some cardboard to see how this size louver would fit on our hoods.

Anyone with interest let me know.

Mike

 

Interested. Make it thick sheet metal. Aluminum bends SO easily.

 

As I posted on the other topic...the hood louvers we saw in the mag are 16 gauge (.0625"). I have to double check my drawing at home, but i think the guy told me they could do .05xx or .04xx thick material. I will double check that and then also check and see if they can do 16GA.

Bending easy, wouldn't be too too bad. We want it to form to the hood. But i think your concern is for the louvers, and them not bending in. Like when there's 16 inches of snow on top of them

 

Yes, or when Wharton pines land on my truck as I'm blazing a new trail through the woods to get around sunken trucks!

 

why do you want louvers? like vents in the hood? how would you do that with your fiberglass hood?

 

To extract heat. I would take a piece of aluminum and use a louver tool to make louvers in the aluminum. Then cut a large rectangular hole in my hood (ouch) and then pop rivet the aluminum louvers to the hood.

These would reduce the temp in the engine compartment significantly.

 

when i get my 302 rebuilt and in my truck,....."crosses fingers for it to be in b4 next year" i want to get a shaker hood made

 

I just got in and looked at my drawing with my notes on the material thickness...i jotted down .090" so that is actually a lot thicker than I had thought. I sent an email to the guy i know late in the afternoon, hopefully i should have some info from him tomorrow.

 

Good. The ones I saw featured were in the January issue, not February, of Petersen's 4
Wheel & Offroad magazine. The are well over $100, so if you can beat that, even without powder coating, that would be a real treat.

Can you get them pre-drilled as well so the mounting holes are nice and even? You need a lot to ensure they lie down properly.

 

Oh yeah...the holes will already be there...and John, please...we use lasers now

 

Lasers schmasers -- as long as they're "drilled"...

 

are there pics of these anywhere online? im tryin to picture what they'd look like in the hood.

 

I don't know what Mikes will look like. You can see some at http://www.raceace.com I do believe. They're too expensive in my opinion, but one of the few "real" aftermarket louvers I've seen.

 

just looked at the site, and they're pretty much what i figured. i was thinking tho.. would you be able to do something on the fenders instead maybe?? like they do with the cheap aftermarket fenders for little coupes and sedans and such.. only.. i guess make your functional.. or would you want them as high off the ground as possible, that being the hood for the engine bay.

i saw an expedition being redone by Christopher Titus on Rides on TLC i think it was.. he had his louvers put into his fenders, kind of like i was picturing.. would they be doable at all??

 

I think the upper ones would be more effective, for convective purposes, and have less flow resistance. If you do the fenders, you have to cut the inner fender to let the heat out -- the way our trucks are made a fender mounted one does nothing without a bit more work.

I think the fender ones are more for flow when you are moving, but that's just my impression.

 

yeah i was thinking about that.. heat rises, etc.. and with the inner fender there and all, i guess yeah it would be more work and all.

 

Here's some on an old Dodge truck:


A view of them on a 4x4:


And silver ones on a GM thingie:

 

That's pretty much what they would look like.
I got some pricing today on them in 16GA (.0625) alum. I sent another email asking about .090 and with the black finishing.

From the breakdowns, I guess I would like to see about 12 sets of these sold. It looks like if i can get 12, then the price should be close to half of those John posted. I haven't gotten pricing on the finish yet, but estimated something. So it may change. That and the material thickness may change so again there may be a slight increase. But the should definately be below $100 for a pair. Unless I grossly underestimated the finishing, and maybe at that point it may just make sense to finish them ourselves.

 

That looks cool, I might be interested once I see what they look like on you guys's trucks.

Edit: They might look real good on my dark blue truck.

 

I think they'll look bad @$$ on my red/black truck and John's white/black truck.
They should look good on everyone's truck...in fact eveyone should get them

 

very cool funstional mod!

hope everything wors out for u, but i'd flinch too hard to have to cut a whole in my baby's hood...

 

The paint they use is interior use only and would fade in less than a month. He suggested powder coating or even exterior paint, like a rustoleum or something we could do ourselves. What are people's takes on the finishing idea? Would you want to just receive the bare aluminum and finish it to your desire (cheaper) or should i look into powder coating? I think I would like to have a certain number of known orders for that. Whereas I would order maybe 12 sets of the unfinished ones and sell them as they are wanted.

 

I might finish them with the same stuff I did my rocker panels and bumper underside and wings with: Martin Seynour Stone Guard #4004 (black).

 

So just them unfinished you think and leave it to each individual to finish how they want? Makes sense. This way the people who want the metal look can have it their way and the people who want it black can have it their way or some may want to color match or another color. It's not too difficult to paint them. Should take maybe 15 mins to take a spray can and spray them. (Wait time not included )

 

i'd say paint them to match the body color....imo...