johng
CCCUK Member
Just come across these, quite fancy a pair although probably not cheap by the time they get to the UK.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Storm Hawk Products
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Storm Hawk Products
Side Louvres
- Thread starter johng
- Start date
johng
CCCUK Member
Now you've done it Ross. I wouldn't have thought of fabricating a pair of these, but now you've suggested it I'm going to have to try and if I can't make it work I'll be disappointed, which will be all your fault 
Easy enough to make one in cardboard. I need to have a play around with dimensions and angles, then I'll give it a go in aluminium.
Easy enough to make one in cardboard. I need to have a play around with dimensions and angles, then I'll give it a go in aluminium.
Steven Smith
CCCUK Member
Always a good idea to design it in CAD first, Cardboard, Aided, Design.Now you've done it Ross. I wouldn't have thought of fabricating a pair of these, but now you've suggested it I'm going to have to try and if I can't make it work I'll be disappointed, which will be all your fault
Easy enough to make one in cardboard. I need to have a play around with dimensions and angles, then I'll give it a go in aluminium.
View attachment 32817
Roscobbc
Moderator
Wouldn't expect anything less from a former Fix Or Repair Daily exec'Now you've done it Ross. I wouldn't have thought of fabricating a pair of these, but now you've suggested it I'm going to have to try and if I can't make it work I'll be disappointed, which will be all your fault
Easy enough to make one in cardboard. I need to have a play around with dimensions and angles, then I'll give it a go in aluminium.
View attachment 32817
CaptainK
Administrator
I was just thinking they do look very nice.
Nassau65
CCCUK Member
One of the things that I’ve always hated on some of the “hooker” type side pipes is that they tend to get rusty after a while and to my eyes look scruffy.
At least on the 69 style aluminium ones even when not polished don’t look scruffy. They may be a dull grey colour, and look very plain, but not scruffy.
At least on the 69 style aluminium ones even when not polished don’t look scruffy. They may be a dull grey colour, and look very plain, but not scruffy.
Roscobbc
Moderator
Chromed headers and side pipes will always be at risk from rust spots. It's usually in the small crevices left when tubes are welded in to collectors. The use the vehicle gets and conditions it is stored in will also potentially affect durability of the chrome finish.
Ceramic coated headers and side pipes suffer less from the problem and perhaps surprisingly can - (to a large degree) have any rust marks polished-out using same products you'd use on paintwork and can look almost as good as chrome. The real answer perhaps is polished stainless headers and side pipes.......but 'blueing' can be problematic and depending on grade/quality of the stainless, embrittlement caused by welding can cause potential material/weld fractures.
They are all rather expensive.......
Ceramic coated headers and side pipes suffer less from the problem and perhaps surprisingly can - (to a large degree) have any rust marks polished-out using same products you'd use on paintwork and can look almost as good as chrome. The real answer perhaps is polished stainless headers and side pipes.......but 'blueing' can be problematic and depending on grade/quality of the stainless, embrittlement caused by welding can cause potential material/weld fractures.
They are all rather expensive.......
johng
CCCUK Member
So, I've been having a play with aluminium and my initial thought that this might rather tricky has proved to be correct. Whilst I'm not yet ready to give up. the cost of the 3D printed version is starting to look much better value. The good news is that I have a large supply of aluminium to play with. A friend gave me a load of I section beam to act as a track to push the body dolly over my gravel drive and doesn't want it back.
I've cut up about 4 feet of it so far with not too much useful to show for it, but I have learnt quite a lot.
1) The panel that the louvre attaches to is not flat, it's curved both vertically and horizontally
2) I suspect that the finished article (should it ever be finished) will be too heavy for just 3M tape, so I'm planning to use some 3mm screws as well.
3) I "think" I can get access from under the car to fit nuts onto the 3mm screws, if not I might use rivnuts
4) The vertical pieces look best if they are not vertical, but match the forward edge of opening (around 15 degrees from vertical)
5) This means that the slots in the vertical pieces need to be cut at 15 degrees as do the slots in the horizontal pieces, although they also need to be at a compound angle of 37 degrees (that's what looks best to me)
6) My aluminium is 3.8mm thick and I can't find a disc for my table saw this thick, so when making the slots I need to open them up some. I could make 2 cuts but this is very hard to do accurately. I think I might have to do 1 cut and then file out the slot to get a tight fit. Of course if I make it a really tight fit and am not 100% accurate it might be impossible to assemble the parts.
Here's all I have to show for my efforts so far. A couple of experimental horizontal and vertical pieces, 3 new horizontal pieces and some uncut strips for the vertical pieces ready for my first attempt at making one side. This is going to be quite a lengthy project.
I've cut up about 4 feet of it so far with not too much useful to show for it, but I have learnt quite a lot.
1) The panel that the louvre attaches to is not flat, it's curved both vertically and horizontally
2) I suspect that the finished article (should it ever be finished) will be too heavy for just 3M tape, so I'm planning to use some 3mm screws as well.
3) I "think" I can get access from under the car to fit nuts onto the 3mm screws, if not I might use rivnuts
4) The vertical pieces look best if they are not vertical, but match the forward edge of opening (around 15 degrees from vertical)
5) This means that the slots in the vertical pieces need to be cut at 15 degrees as do the slots in the horizontal pieces, although they also need to be at a compound angle of 37 degrees (that's what looks best to me)
6) My aluminium is 3.8mm thick and I can't find a disc for my table saw this thick, so when making the slots I need to open them up some. I could make 2 cuts but this is very hard to do accurately. I think I might have to do 1 cut and then file out the slot to get a tight fit. Of course if I make it a really tight fit and am not 100% accurate it might be impossible to assemble the parts.
Here's all I have to show for my efforts so far. A couple of experimental horizontal and vertical pieces, 3 new horizontal pieces and some uncut strips for the vertical pieces ready for my first attempt at making one side. This is going to be quite a lengthy project.