Hot Rods Hollis Cranmer's louver set

Forgive me if this is a bit self serving. Hollis sent me his stuff to do from a couple different points on the other side of the country, and I thought you guys might want to see what I have been up to the last couple of 110 degree plus weeks! He wanted a whole matched set of traditional louvers, so I obliged. If you see this car when it is done from a second story landing, say at a hotel, you'll notice that the louvers continue in the same spacing from the front of the hood to the bottom of the deck lid. It's a tiny detail, but something I love to do, 'cause when you see it, a giant light bulb comes on! The hood panels I did in three matching rows spaced congruently to the inner rows of 25 on the hood tops, so that everything stays aligned from the bottom of the hood, up and over. I added a tiny bit of taper to the hood side rows so that they follow the natural taper of the hood sides, too.

Anyway, enough babble from me...

 

Friggin' awesome!!!

 

Nice job.

 

great job as always, Chip

 

Looks great!

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Those louvers do look good and it is apparent you go the extra mile to make sure that the symmetry is dead on. HRP

 

Absolutely one of the finest louver jobs I've ever seen. Can you imagine if just one of those vents were spaced differently or one was crooked or out of line right in the middle of a panel? I can imagine the stress gets off the charts as you near the end of a job.

Frank

 

nice....

 

Ha! I have literally awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat having a dream about pulling the handle and punching a louver at the exact wrong place and moment! Simple guy, simple night mares...

 

Man, that's a buncha holes. (& some damn nice work!)

 

Damn that's nice.I might have to send my A hood top when ready.

 

Ya, 414 of them!

Truth be told, I really started this thread because I'm having problems with sending pictures via my e-mail - I knew that I should have had kids at some point! Now until I can borrow a buddies urchin for a bit to fix it, this was the only way I could think of to let Hollis see his finished deal.

 

Looks tits! Still have the original hood for my Vicky full of old "domed" louvers like that but all the rows are about as straight as Cave Creek road, lol.

 

Very nice, attention to detail makes all the difference.

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He he! Folks seriously underestimate how much work is involved in keeping all of this stuff straight! Thing is, if you look at the deck lid, there isn't one straight line on that puppy! An early ford deck lid has compound curves working their magic from every direction. When you try to run a straight line over the length of the curve, suddenly it isn't straight anymore. Like wise running your cross lines for the actual louver vents. Because of the compound curve in the dead center of the deck lid, the lines that I use to make my marks are longer as they get closer to the center. If you look at the deck lid, the end line right above the bottom jamb is straight... Now look at any other louvered deck lid and you'll see the louvers form a slight "V" shape right there. It's all details.

 

Bump, 'cause I still haven't heard from Hollis...

 

Punching louvers looks deceptively simple but I'm sure it takes years of practice to learn all the tricks like the straight line on a curved surface.

Your work speaks for itself. HRP

 

Thank you HRP!

 

Very nice job indeed. Now for the guy who gets to color sand & buff them, he's got a TON of work.

 

An Excellent job !!!!!!!! I'm extremely happy. Those will be lookin' great soon. Pictures to follow.

 

Very nice, Chip. Nice to know where we can get louvers done right here in the SW.

 

1. Very nice. Knowing the layout time on that set took more time than punching them.
   
2. 
   
3. I have those same dreams. Of the 480+ louvers on my old track roadster I misplaced one in one of the last rows in one of the belly pan halves. It'll be there forever!

Charlie

 

Thank you guys! Mission accomplished on this one.... Hollis is happy!

 

Can I get the top of my truck done?


jerry

 

I like it, a lot. Some louver jobs can look a little like "appliance vents" The subtle layout changes you made to follow the form really pay off.

 

If you can flip that puppy upside down for me.... Wait, look who I'm talking too.... I've seen that truck nearly upside down more than once, and defying gravity on several other occasions!

 

Great work Chip, I should have the hood for my 3W to you next month for 6 rows of louvers just like you did for Hollis, in my opinion the lay out is perfect.

 

Absolutely Doug, this is exactly what I was talking about doing with your three window stuff!

 

I like it, I like it, I like it I wish it was mine. Did you say 110 degrees?........................

 

Wow - those louvers are pure art. I hate to ask but - how long did it take you to do the layout and punch those 400+ puppies?