WANT TO REDUCE OR INCREASE THE OUTER DIMENSIONS OF OUR HOOD LOUVERS? HERE’S HOW!
Want to REDUCE the Outer Dimensions?
Consider this: Most of our Hood Louvers can be shortened (front-to-rear) by trimming off the panel from the rear, parallel to the louvered openings. Then, you can:
1) Drill rivet holes in the remaining web behind the rear of the last louvered opening, or
2) do not place any rivets across the rear of the panel. They are not really needed across the rear. In fact, if your rivets along the sides are used, they are plenty — so, if you wanted to trim down the leading edge, you could do this, too, or
3) when you shorten a panel of Hood Louvers, you could leave one extra row of the raised louvered opening (the “roof”, if you will, of the louvered opening) and pound it flat with a hand-held sledge hammer, hitting onto a 2 X 4 board placed above that area of the Hood Louver to prevent individual ‘dimples’ in the surface. To remove any surface ripples, sand the hammered surface smooth, starting with a medium-coarse grit and progressing through two increasingly finer grits.
Want to INCREASE the Outer Dimensions?
Several vehicle owners have found a size of RunCool Hood Louvers they liked, but the hole in the hood (e.g., from removing a hood scoop, a blower cover or other hood louvers they found to be inferior) was bigger, usually in one dimension, but sometimes two dimensions, than the RunCool Hood Louvers they would like to select.
The Answer: Make a “Master Panel”, with an “Apron” around our Hood Louvers. To do this:
1) Cut a panel of sheet aluminum the shape and size of the larger open area of the hood that you want to cover. Sheet Aluminum comes in various thicknesses; we like .063” thick for this purpose. If you have a choice of alloys, we like and use Alloy No. 3003.
2) Follow our Installation Instructions for mounting our Hood Louvers – – but mount them onto this Master Panel, instead of directly onto the hood.
3) Then, mount the Master Panel to your hood, making sure that you follow the details in our Instructions!
4) If you plan to pop rivet the Master Panel in place, tell us this when you order, and we will include 100 extra pop rivets (please tell us the color you would like), at no charge; or you can use Stainless Steel sheet-metal screws – see our “Bob’s Tips” on this – or double-side panel tape.