Hood I.D.

[ChevyJr]

Anyone have an idea what type of hood this is? Was this an option for a '65 or is this hood from a different year?

[robber grin]

That appears to be a stock 62 to 66 Chevy truck hood with four rows of louvers punched in it at some point.

Looks okay to me other than the front lip - I'd run it.
rg

[ChevyJr]

Originally Posted by robber grin

That appears to be a stock 62 to 66 Chevy truck hood with four rows of louvers punched in it at some point.

Looks okay to me other than the front lip - I'd run it.
rg

Louvers...Hmmm. With all the restorations I've completed not sure how I'm not familiar with that term. Thanks.

[1963c-10]

Were real popular with the early hot rod crowds

[robber grin]

Louvering a hood or deck lid gave the heat off the engines a way to vent and became a customizing technique.

rg

[markeb01]

The louvers on your hood appear to be nicely done.

Here are a couple of other patterns on hoods of other forum members:





Louvers can be a featured custom touch and are fully functional. They can also get expensive very quickly as most charge by the louver. Guys that know what they’re doing normally charge a lot.

And the hood can easily be ruined by an amateur. Once you know what to look for it’s glaringly obvious whether louvers have been done well or not, so it pays to see other examples of their work before committing. Every time I see a louver layout I can’t help but noticing if they were done well or badly, and sadly I’ve seen far more bad louver jobs than good ones.

To give you an idea of what’s involved in creating them, all the paint had to be stripped, and any structure underneath had to be removed because the highest priority for a louver guy is protecting his dies, doing your hood comes second. Here are some of the things that separate the good from the not so good:

1. The rows need to be perfectly aligned front to back, unless deliberately punched at an angle, and then each angle should match exactly. Poorly done louvers zig zag (the ends of each louver don’t align with the one in front or behind). The louver rows end up looking like a snake instead of a straight line.

2. Spacing between louvers is uneven. Each new louver is supposed to register off the previous punch. When done incorrectly some will be bunched up with others too far apart.

3. Twisted louvers – when the punch isn’t kept parallel with other louvers and one end is very close to another louver while the other end is too far apart.

4. Dull dies - tear the metal apart instead of punching it cleanly. The flat lower edge and the corners usually look the worst, although the back opening of the louver can also have sharp metal showing. It literally looks like the metal was torn apart instead of pierced and formed. In some case this can be corrected with hours of hand file work, but finding a more experienced operator is a better investment.

Once any louver is punched incorrectly, the panel is junk and cannot be repaired. Even if the metal could be welded and restored to perfectly flat nobody will repunch it as the metal has been work hardened and will ruin the louver dies. This is why guys that know what they’re doing charge so much. Punching louvers is a tedious and time consuming process because there can be no mistakes.

I found out about this stuff when I had them punched in my 46 Ford hood:



Mine wasn’t so much for cosmetics, the carb routinely boiled over because it got so hot in that small contained area. The nice part being they really do work and are a great attention grabber. The ventilation provided eliminated the overheating problem. The downside was needing to cover the engine with a garbage can lid every time I washed the car to keep from drowning the distributor!