Well, my favorite way of laying these hoods out is with a pattern that tapers to the front of the car, usually 3 rows per side. I sometimes with these will use the hood's part line with the cowl to angle the louvers. I know with out pictures this is not a great help, so I will try to come up with a couple. Some of these might not be '34s but you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. My old computer died about 9 months ago with most of my gallery for the last 5 years on board. Okay, so other than some side panels, none of these are '34. I didn't relize that I haven't done a hood top this year yet. But, as I said, you can get the idea of what I'm talking about with tapers and angles of the louvers. The trick with this pattern is that it works with the body lines and not against them. So it's not all about the louvers, but all about the car that happens to have louvers.... Make any sense?
Thanks for the pictures - have you every seen louvers on the hood top -turned the other way - so air would be forced in
Thanks! Totally makes sense, and I get the idea... Looks good! The only pic I have of one is this layout. Of which, upon first reaction..I think I like your idea better. Eventhough this coupe is beautiful!!! Perfect!!
Not a good idea! Tell you a quick story... About twenty years ago when I was just getting into this deal with the louvers, I was approached by the company that started the whole Dwarf car racing thing. I did lterally hundreds of hoods for them before they moved they're production elswhere. One of their early customers came to me to help with a coolling problem and of course asked me to louver his hood. I had it done in a couple of days, and he came to pick it up. "Crap! You punched them the wrong way!!!" was all I heard. Louvers have been traditionally used to Vent hot air and trapped high pressure from hoods and trunks, not to mention airplane cowls forever. I had punched his as I had done every other one to vent with the openings facing rearward. i explaned the theory behind this and he got more angry by the minute until I suggested he try this hood, and either way I would do one for him punched the oposite way, free of charge. He brought me another hood the next day, and I made good and punched it backwards to scoop the incoming air. Smug that he was right, he put the reversed hood on his car in the first heat at Manzinita raceway on a typical summer hundred degree night.... After two laps was out due to catostrophic overheating. I told him to put the other hood on and run the next heat, and he did. Guess what... The car ran at 180 the rest of the evening and for the rest of the season!!! So what happened here? As air comes through the radiator on our cars, it takes the heat out of the core and flows around the engine and down and out of the compartment. By punching the tops of your hood to vent, it makes that flow of air that more efficient by increasing the area that it can vent through. Puching the sides to match triples that area in some instances. By turning those vents around, you now are scooping air into the compartment and increasing the pressure pressent, right? By doing that, you now have created a "wall" of high pressure that will not allow incoming air to pass through your radiator! It's almost the same as putting a piece of card board taped tightly to the inside of you radiator core... Aint no way air is going to pass through... That's how this whole mess works. If it's not too spammy to say, I do mail order on small projects all the time...
Managed to go 1 too many on the short side, got a bit close to edge which in turn tries to flatten the roll. Good practice on an ol' beater.
I thought there may be a reason - Had no idea it would be that much of a problem - thanks for the great answer ,I will will send you a PM on doing some louvers for my 34 Thanks Again
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