I have a Sierra-based Henley (TF-ish) which needs a fair bit of work. Looking at the bonnet sides, I notice that the louvres are all the same height which means that, as they meet the front wings which swoop upwards towards the front, the front-most louvres are progressively 'overlapped' by the wing itself. Not the tidiest looking setup.

The solution the buider used was to (quite crudely - I think he was in a hurry to get the car on the road!) hack into the wings so that they cleared the louvres. It doesn't look good...

I'm tempted to try and improve matters by marking where the wings overlap the louvres and then flatten the bottom parts of the louvres which currently disappear below wing level. The louvres would then become progressively smaller towards the front as they follow the contour of the wings, but staying above them. I'd then fill in the sections that had been removed from the wings themselves.

I'm surprised that the kit had this 'glitch'; the wings clearly foul the louvres, so something has to 'give'!

What is the recognised solution?

Thanks for any help.

Donnie,

Are you having a re-spray of respective parts afterwards?

The expensive solution would be a new set of side panels (the new ones having a step to avoid that very problem). Before that the solution most people adopted was to neatly cut the wings to avoid the foul. Since the builder made a mess of that you're left with a few options:

1. Tidy up the mess and leave the gap.

2. Leave the louvres and fill and mould the wind to fit them better, I've never seen it done but it might work.

3. Do exactly as you suggest, although I'm not sure how easy it would be to do neatly without bending the side panel a bit. A better solution might be to cut out the louvred part totally below the wing and simply fibreglass/fill the gap, sand back and paint. The problem real will always be how to match the bottom part of the louvre to the top (maybe bend it over a suitably shaped bit of wood).

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Thanks for that, George.

Ah, so it was just less-than-perfect design at the time?

I'm thinking of going for the third option; if I make up a former which has the profile of a louvre, I should hopefully be able to use this to support each louvre at the new end points, and gently form the unwanted parts flat. Aluminium is pretty malleable stuff.

Yes, it will be resprayed afterwards - the car is currently (very badly) hand painted, and is also full of crazes and cracks which I believe are only paint-thick (due to the paint not suiting the gel coat below rather than actual cracks in the gel coat itself).

I appreciate the reply - very helpful.

Cheers, Donnie.

Couple of tips..........use hardwood for former.
Ali work hardens so it wont be soft. Strip paint off,smear soft soap (fairy liquid)over louvres and heat with blowlamp (gently) until soap turns black (this softens the metal).Keep bottom of reformed louvres as close to the wing line as possible.
Good Luck
Mel

Cheers Mel; good info, much appreciated.

I hadn't realised that Ali can also work harden, so will do as you suggest. I take it the soap acts mearly as a temp guide?

Thanks.

Yep

Cheers!

Your welcome, did u look at the pics of how I did my doors?

Yes, very interesting - but too much like hard work for me!

A welder is one main piece of kit I just don't have. I could get a local company to make them up, but I do like to tackle these jobs myself.

When the time comes, I suspect I'll be laminating thinish sheets of ext ply to form the required body and door curve, and then glassing them in place. I hope this will also give the required weight and clunkiness!

Cheers, Donnie.