I can just imagine how many of you cringed while reading that title.

I've got a beautiful '86 Camaro with a nice paint job. One of the louvers on the hood is busted off, and I wanted to replace it. Looking at it from the underside, I wondered how it stayed in place with no nuts or caulk or even epoxy holding it.

Looking at it from the top, I can see where someone (I could replace "someone" with a few choice words here) used liquid nails to glue the louver to the hood. It looks like crap.

I was wondering if any of you would happen to know of a way of getting the louver off without taking the paint.


I know that liquid nails says on their website that you can soften the stuff with a heat gun, setting it to 140 degrees fahrenheit. I'm worried that this might melt the plastic louver or possibly strip the paint from the hood. They also say that petroleum jelly or mineral spirits could be used to soften it. Would either of these cause harm to the paint? Whatever I would use would have to be on there for about a day to soften it enough.


If anyone has any other advice (like how I can find the guy who did this) I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

heat gun from ther inside of the hood, shouldnt hurt the paitn much considering how hot it can get on a sunny day

 

I don't have any experience with liquid nails but I would bet if you let the car sit out on a hot sunny day right in the sun that you would get a lot of heat there considering the louvers are black.

 

Well, tomorrow is supposed to get pretty warm. Maybe I'll try to peel it off during my lunch break.

If that doesn't work, the heat gun is looking like it might be a good idea. Does anyone know how hot you'd have to get the paint to strip it? I'd try to keep the temperature under that.


If anyone else has any additional suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

 

when using the heat gun don't keep heat gun in one spot move backwards and forewords over the area you want to heat. and just gently ply part out every so often it should pop out after a few pass's with the heat gun.

Or if your game get a craft knife and carefully cut liquid nails out. best idea i can come up with some one else might have more experience though