He told me they would be held on by screws or poprivets. Also they are two shaped sheet metal pieces with vents stamped in. I dont knowhow he got that price, but they are too rich for me now.

 

Stop me when I lie, but Im 100% sure that his method is similar to the manufactures methods of punching out holes like those in a swamp cooler.. How much does a swamp cooler cost? Less than $150. Holw much for a pair of hood louvers? In this case, hella more than the swamp cooler.

 

I think the best option is to open up the original louvres and then cut a couple of holes in the hood.

Seen it done earlier in this thread and have a better idea now, although some attempts seem a bit rough around the edges.

The ideal solution would be after market louvres that already have the cut outs, but these don't seem to exist.

 

if $290 is too much, get another car because that's now much a new set cost (if you can find them). I would buy a set. when can he have them done? I need them made to the same spec as the OEM louvers... only with vent holes.

 

/\ a dead thread has come back to life. /\

 

He wanted a stock set to get the measurements right. I dont know how long and I was unemployed at the time thats why that price was too much.

 

Well all the guy needs is one. With the machines he can easily just flip the schematics and work off of that one piece.

 

bump. MWAHAHAHA

 

That's actually a great price for a 'one-off' custom piece; given the time, and initial mock up labor involved. How can we contact him for getting a sample set done? Nitro-Nicky

 

wonder if they could be cnc'ed

 

Anything can be cnc'd. The problem is whether or not someone wants to give it a shot. There comes great risks. One can cnc it. But what about the demand? Not to mention, the time consuming modification to the hood inwhich the large holes that must be cutout.

 

there is a place here that does custom jobs all the time. I think if I like the turnout I could start selling them :P

 

just ordered these... will post results later.

 

subscribed.

 

What are you installing those on? Doesn't look like a 3rd gen hood.

 

where did you find those? those are awesome. would be great if we can put it in cad, and do it on a water jet or plasma cam,

 

I CUT OUT THE SECTIONS OF HOOD SHEET METAL UNDER MY LOUVERS AND HOGGED THEM OUT WITH A DENTIST DRILL. DONT DO THE SECTIONS ABOVE THE THROTTLE BODY TO KEEP THE TPS AND IAC FROM GETTING WET IN THE RAIN.

 

That is fantastic. Any pics of how you cut the louvers up?

 

I USED A HI SPEED DENTIST DRILL TYPE AIR TOOL AND A METAL CUTTING BIT. I DRILLED SMALL HOLES TO START THE CUTS. I DIDNT CUT OUT THE SECTIONS OF HOOD ABOVE THE THROTTLE BODY TO TRY TO KEEP WATER OFF THE IAC AND TPS. THE PLASTIC VENTS ARE 20 YEARS OLD AND ARE CRACKED. IT TAKES A LONG TIME AND THE PLASTIC MIGHT NOT SURVIVE IT. THESE THINGS WERE NOT DESIGNED TO LAST VERY LONG. THE METAL VENTS WITH MUCH MORE POTENTIAL AIRFLOW ARE THE BEST OPTION. EVEN BETTER IS VENTS THAT YOU COULD CLOSE LIKE SHUTTERS IN THE RAIN OR AT NITE.

 

make a simple tray that will draw the air off the radiator and keep water off the engine

 

Just found this thread. Any more progress pics?

I didn't read every post... but I'm thinking that a guy could cut a piece of steel the same shape as the plastic louver insert, then punch louvers in the metal with a louver press. You'd have to cut out the hood below the louvers to make it functional & probably make some sort of tray to drain rainwater away.... but I don't see why that wouldn't work. ??
I think making louvers that open & close would be neat, but not practical & would cost way too much to produce if you wanted to sell them.

 

You wouldn't have to cut matching louvers in our hoods, unless you want to see the engine visually. "If" we're just looking at a way to channel out hot air as the goal, we could just reverse what many of us used to do to get extra air into our Toyota Truck intakes in the days before CAI were manufactured.

What I'd do was purchase what's referred to as a Boat Passthrough and install it onto the airbox. They come in different sizes and I could install the maximum unit that would fit on the flat surface of the filter intake airbox.

For those who have no idea of what these are, It's a flat two piece unit circle. There's an outer thin permanant ring that's maybe about an inch wide and has screwing grooves cut into the inside of the ring. The removable center piece has a couple notches manufactured into the surface for your hand to grip, so you can unscrew this center unit and pass stuff back and forth from outside of a boat and then seal any rain or splashing water from getting to the interior.
So of course with those early air boxes, we could get massive amounts of fresh air near the grill,and then install the cover for rain season and smog checks.

Thus, if we can just come up with a decent looking outer set of hood louvers, we could install a set, or a double set of these pass through's underneath and be able to close them up for winter or car wash sessions. That's my thoughts. Nitro-Nicky

 

Why is there such worry about water hitting the engine? I see people drive around with no hoods all the time with no problems lmao. People even wash their blocks with a high pressure hose.

 

I've thought of doing this. I've also thought of doing something similar to what 84z28350 did:

 

Making function hood louvres would be a perfect project for a 3D printer.

 

Here's a suggestion: connect the open/close function on the louvers to that of the the throttle

 

While that would look neat, it would be more functional to have them open when the radiator fan turns on, then close when it shuts off.

 

There's a variety of things you could do here. Mine would be to have them like air vents in your house, have a little hinge and lever so you could close them when it's raining. Hooking up a little servo or something would be fairly easy to do, or even just a mechanical line like the hood release cable so you could open and close them from inside the car. Most cars have something in where rain goes from the bottom of the windshield behind the hood into little channels and dumps out in the bottom of the fenders through little tubes. Putting a little tray and a runoff might be possible, esp if you have it dump where I just mentioned.

 

I have actually put a lot of thought into this subject and agree that the house blinds is probably the easiest way to go. I worked out in my head a few ways to open them, but haven't come up with anything I really like. Vacuum control would be pretty easy to do using an EGR solenoid from an 88-98 chevy truck, or the cruise control servos these cars came with. I have also thought about trying to use a small micro controller like the Arduino and a stepper motor to vary the amount they are opened based on the coolant temp sensor. Part of my problem stems from the way my hood opens(front hinge like a Vette), and routing any cables/wires/vac lines etc.its something I'd really like to do, just need to work out what works best for my camaro. That, and I'm not sure my fab skills are good enough yet to make the louvers themselves.

 

Since the vents are directly above the intake, why not make them a part of it? Cut them out of the hood and mount them as part of the intake like a blower

 

That might work for a carb and TBI, but I think the turn would be too sharp to be effective on a TPI system. You would also have to worry about water more than if they were simply made to extract heat.

 

Hey All-

I'm doing a Supercharged LS3 build on an 88 Vert through Hawks and had to come up with a solution to avoid heat soak. I decided to create these functional hood louvers and when I saw how freakin' awesome they were, wanted to offer them to everyone! Functional Aluminum Hood Louvers made specifically for 3rd Gen's - FINALLY!!. Please check out www.camarolouvers.com for lots of pics and info.

 

I LOVE the louvers. However, in taking consideration the price of an ASCD SS style hood for not much more money, makes more sense to go that route.

 

Glad you love them! I wish I could have bought them for $399! These cost me a small fortune to produce - lol. But I was determined to try this once in my life! I'm pretty thrilled with how they came out. I'll post final pics in a month or so when the hood has new paint and sound deadener trimmed for the louvers. Should look pretty cool-er. Get it? Cooler!

 

I am sure there was a lot of effort to get these produced for sure. They look really good.

 

Are these "functional" or do they stay open all the time?

 

They're functional in that they let heat escape, but they do not move and remain open. 15 degree or 25 degree angle and textured or smooth powder coating you can select.

 

Dude, dont vanish, been looking for this forever. As soon as my project gets to the point of cosmetics, will be giving you a call! You have any pics of your cuts on the hood ?

 

HI - No worries - we'll be here when you are ready. The only pics I have of the cutout are at www.camarolouvers.com in the gallery tab. The louvers are installed but the under hood shots clearly show the cut.


Thanks for your interest!

 

a few pics I haven't posted here of the factory mimic low profile smooth finish.

 

krio your louvers are by far the best I seen. Only issue is the price. Any way you can do a group purchase in efforts to bring the price down let say by $100 if you sell a certain amount?

 

Dear 3GZJerry,
Glad to hear they are by far the best you've seen! If you would indulge me, I would like to give you a point by point response to your query.


1) I looked far and wide for eons for a set of these and found none
2) The cost to bring these to market was really quite high
3) Design and CAD drawings were by far the single biggest expense
4) Manufacture, building and powder coating adds to the expense as you can appreciate. The glue for the brace is $75 a tube but is the only thing that will survive the powder coating process. I can only get 6 sets out of a tube if I'm lucky and the gun was $80 if you can imagine!
5) specialty boxes, bubble wrap and templates added costs and work to the undertaking
6) The $25 flat rate shipping is actually a loss leader as most shipping costs more than this and the shortfall has been rolled into the price.
7) The plastic factory ones I see listed for $499 - $100 MORE than functional aluminum
8) I found a set on the internet for $365 that looked a lot like house vents and weren't in the proper shape for our unique hoods - are these worth another $34?
9) This whole venture may end up netting me a free set for my own build and in my wildest dreams maybe a spare set. (I can't decide between textured aggressive and factory smooth either) Maybe aggressive for the boys and factory when I'm with the wife? Don't know
10) It would be unfair to the people who have already purchased for $399 without issue
11) If this was a profitable venture, surely someone - anyone - would have brought these to market at some point in the last 25 years!
12) If I could have bought these for $399...well I'd have a LOT more money and a set of louvers right now
13) This was simply a labor of love instead of profit.
14) You said yourself they are 'by far the best you've seen' - is this worth $100 extra?
15) If anyone could build these from scratch for $399, they'd be tons of them everywhere and I wouldn't be typing right now.
16) Just advertising on this site costs more than a set of louvers.
17) Luckily I have a real job which allowed me to spend boatloads of dough to make these long dreamt of louvers a reality - I hope you'll support them.


So I guess the short answer is no, for all the above reasons. But I am truly thankful for all the vastly positive feedback and sales I have received in the opening 2 weeks. As I said, this was a labor of love for my 3rd Gen - a car I will keep the rest of my days. We 3rd Genners need to stick together so that others can bring cool mods to market. These cars are finally coming into their own.


Finally just want to thank you for your interest. I'm truly glad you like them. They are the culmination of a lot of time and effort.

All the best

 

Kerry I'm loving that you've done this. I reckon they're worth it. Need to get saving

 

THANKS ZZ42Fast


Great news! They're even less in British Pounds!!

 

Can you send me some pics of the steeper angle vs the shallower? I'm keen to get an idea of price shipped to me in the UK too.

Do they need to be screwed on? Any other way- like sealant? Also any thoughts on what to do if parked up in the rain. Do you thin it could present a problem?

Pls mail me at ukzz4iroc at yahoo dot com

 

HI - sent you an email. Pic # 14 on the home page of www.camarolouvers.com is the pic you're after - just click to enlarge.


THANKS

 

now.. a drip tray

 

That's version 851. Currently on V2. 😉

 

The hole in the bonnet for these louvres is in the middle.

The distributor is at the rear, and the alternator is at the front. I don't think water coming thru the hood will be an issue.

Worst case scenario is that water builds up around the intake manifold, which turns into steam as the engine warms up.

I think these louvres are a great idea, although I'm still considering better ways to mount a set when I buy them.

 

Thanks Peterc005. I thought about water while making these. I figured when the vehicle is moving, NO water will be getting in because of wind escaping through the vents. If I was parking for a long period in the rain, I'd just open the hood, throw an unopened garbage bag over the engine and walk away.
For mounting, you could use 3M panel adhesive. Stuff is like cement and no bolts/screws required.
Thanks!