One of the cars that pulled family duty back when I was a teenager was a G-body Chevy Malibu station wagon that my guardian couldn’t trade for fast enough. It was a cool machine…four-speed swap, a rockin’ little 350 under the hood, a clean interior, slot mags, and a cream-colored outside with a flat-black hood that had been louvered. Yeah, screw your mom’s Eddie Bauer Explorer, I got driven to school in that beast. I also learned to despise that car, but that’s a story that doesn’t need to be told here. But even after the car became a problem for me, I had to admit that the Malibu wouldn’t be half as cool without the louvered hood.
Whether you are trying to get some heat out of wherever you’re placing them or you just like the look, louvers are one of the older body modifications out there. Patterned into rows, designed into shapes like arrowheads or diamonds or used to stripe out a panel, louvers are one of those neat trick design features that take a bit of metalworking know-how but look great when performed right. Check out the work that goes into this hand-formed trunklid for a 1927 Ford Model T project build!
Nice demonstration. But I’d call that a practice part, when they get good they’ll form the panel curves before punching so there’s not kinks at the edges of the holes, fix their sloppy louver die so that it has flat plates to come together and press in the shape fully, and leave the front and rear ends of the part long at first until the curve is in then form the end flanges so they don’t get those flat areas being left. C’mon guys, steel’s cheap.
Can’t wait for the sequel – hand finishing and sanding 126 louvres!