Mk II and Mk III Custom Hood Louvers Available

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Hi guys. I have to admit I'm treading into new waters here, as I don't get over to the Roadster side much.....to busy with GTM stuff to spend as much time here as I'd like. Anyway, as some of you may know, I've been building FFR GTM's since the time the kits were available for purchase. I ended up purchasing a CNC plasma table to cut the many, many custom parts that I designed and make for the GTM's. I had a few guys ask me to do some custom parts for Roadster's......so, here I am! It seemed that one product that no one really had a good-looking solution for was hood louvers. Many were using louvers meant for some other application, or "universal-fit" louvers......and of all of the pics I've seen of the different ones used.....well, they just don't look like they were designed for the Roadster......because they weren't! :)

So I had a couple of guys ask me to come up with something. Even went so far that one guy was nice enough to splash one rear corner of his hood in fb and ship it to me so I could see what I needed to do to make something that would fit and look right. Right now, I only have them available for the MkII and MkIII.....and as I understand it, the MkI and MkIV have differences in the bottom side of the hood, or thickness of the hood (some have the liner bonded direct to the bottom of the hood with no space and some have an air gap between the top hood surface and liner?) that these may or may not work? You can see more pics of the Hood Louvers here:

http://vraptorspeedworks.com/mk-ii-roadster-hood-louvers/


http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/vacextar/MkIIHood4.jpg




I have these parts listed on my website for sale right now. If you look thru some of my GTM parts that I make, you can see I make a ton of louvers, brackets, supports, etc for the GTM. I would be happy to do this for the Roadster crowd also. If you're fluent with CAD and you draw up a bracket you'd like to have made, you can send me a DXF of the file and I can cut it for you. Right now, I keep aluminum in .040", .080" and 1/8" in stock, as well as 14ga and 11ga steel. If you're not fluent with CAD, and you have an idea for a bracket, louvered panel or trim plate that you think will have some mass-appeal to other Roadster builders, I will work with you to develop that product. I don't mind doing this if there is potential for several sales, as I need to justify spending the time to draw up and prototype the part by selling more than one part. :)

Thanks!

[Mike N]

Shane.

Do you know if they will work on a Mk I hood? I really like what you have there and want a set. If you are not sure let me know what you think would work best and I'd be happy to be the guinea pig. By the way my hood does not have a liner.

Thanks.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Hi Mike. If you can post some pics of the underside of your hood and if you have any way of measuring the thickness of your hood in the area where the hood louvers will be installed, that will give me a good idea of if the MkII Hood Louvers will also fit the Mk I. I was thinking that the guy who had the MkII said that the Mk I hood was single-thickness with no liner at all on the bottom of the hood? The Mk III hood had a pretty large air gap between the outer hood skin and liner, so the louvers have to extend up a lot farther on the Mk III Hood Louvers to be flush with the hood surface. Post some pics and measurements and we'll go from there. Thanks!

[Mike N]

Shane.

The hood does not have a liner so it is single thickness. It's just raw fiber glass laminate on the underside. Measuring the thickness at the front edge of the hood scoop opening with a pair of calipers it measures between 0.19" and 0.20" thick but could be slightly more or less in the area where the louvers would sit. I would say that if you made the louvers to work with a 0.20" thickness that it would be close enough.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Hi Mike,

I'm guessing that the Mk II louvers might just fit fine as-is on your Mk I. The louver blades extend up about 5/16" (.312") from the mounting perimeter surface, and if you're hood is .2" thick, that would mean that the tops of the louver blades would end up being about .112" above the surface of your hood when installed.....which IMO should work out about perfect for function and appearance. You can shoot me an email thru the address on my website if you'd like to order a set. Thanks!

Shane

[dallas_]

Shane,
Those look really nice. Can you post some pictures of them raw so we can see what they look like before they are installed?

I glassed in a set of fiberglass louvers and can tell you that it is a really time consuming task to get them to the point that they are ready for paint. It's a lot of detail sanding in the nooks and crannies and it gets pretty tedious after a while.

These look like they would be a really good alternative.

Thanks,
John

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Thanks John. This is how you would receive them......flat. This is a photo of the Mk IV hood louvers:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/vacextar/photobucket-2206-1326757058383.jpg


The louver blades are easily hand-formed to the proper angle (using the slots in the brace as a guide to get the proper angle) and then the brace is installed to hold all of the louvers at the same angle and help to make the whole assembly more rigid. I assemble them here and put a small "fillet weld" of 3M 8115 panelbonding adhesive on only the bottom side of the louvers, to bond each louver blade to the brace. You can send them thru powdercoat after bonding them and the heat does not affect the epoxy. I've done it dozens on times. Here is what they look like once they are formed to shape and the brace is installed. This usually takes me about 5 minutes each (these are the Mk II louvers):


http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/vacextar/photobucket-1393-1329496577730.jpg


http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/vacextar/photobucket-6852-1329496483140.jpg

Not to toot my own horn, but your complaints are exactly why I decided to dive into this in the first place. Installation of these is a breeze compared to anything else I've seen. When you receive the louvers (leaving them flat), lay them out on the bottom side of the hood so that they fit where you want them and be sure that the perimeter does not interfere with the raised part of the hood liner, use a pick to trace around the outer edges of the louver blades (do not come all the way to the front edge of the front blade.....go about mid-way on the blade), cut out the hole just a bit smaller than what you scribed. Now you can form the louvers to shape and install the brace. Now attempt to install the louvers from the bottom side of the hood. Hopefully you will NOT be able to quite get them in. Figure out where it's tight/interferring and use a file to smooth up the edges of the hole and enlarge the hole until the louvers can be installed and the perimeter of the louvered panel lays flat against the back side of the hood. Make sure you open the hole up large enough to account for thickness of primer/paint/powdercoat. After the hood is painted and the louvers are painted or powdercoated (or polished?), then rough up the paint a bit on the bottom side of the hood where the perimeter sits and bond them into place with the same 8115 or similar epoxy. No real bodywork to do. No nooks and crannies to try to sand in. No problems with trying to get paint down into the louvers while you're trying to paint the hood at the same time....which can be a real bear on any paint job and candies in particular.

[David]

Really nice work Shane!! The louvers look great.

David

[Mike N]

Shane.

Just paypal'ed you for a set of Mk II louvers.

Thanks.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Thanks Mike! I'll get them cut and shipped as soon as I can.......should ship either tomorrow or Friday. Thanks!

[ClemsonS197]

Hmm. Those look really good. What kind of effort/material is needed to polish them? After they are polished, do they need to be cleared? Or will they stay nicely finished?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

It's nice to have the materials specifically for metal polishing....but it's not all that different from wet-sanding and polishing paint out......hit them with an orbital sander with ~500 grit, then ~1000 grit, then ~1500 grit and from there, use a buffing wheel and polishing compound to bring them to a shine. To stay that way, I imagine you'd have to do something like clear anodizing or some other coating. I doubt you could get regular paint clear coat to stick to a polished surface.

[Pierre B]

Very nicely designed and executed, Shane. Those truly are the nicest hood louvers I have seen. I really should take a look at the GTM site to see what else you provide. Great work!

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Thanks Pierre B!

[2FAST4U]

Am I correct in reading your comment that a small dab of epoxy is used to keep everything in place?

[riptide motorsport]

beautiful stuff!

[jayguy]

Beautiful stuff.

I'm thinking the Mk4 louvers might look good on the side panels of a 33, too, with the radius corner down and back to match the curve on the panel. Or maybe another shape just for the 33?

Anyone want to try it? I would, but my '33 won't he here for a couple more years. :(

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Am I correct in reading your comment that a small dab of epoxy is used to keep everything in place?

I smear a small fillet of epoxy into the joint where each louver blade meets the brace....just on the bottom side where it can't be seen. Then, yes, on hoods that are single thickness, I rough up the perimeter of the louver panel and the mating area where it meets the hood, and epoxy the louvers to the hood.

On hoods like the Mk III, where there is an air gap between the hood fg and the hood liner, you can get your hole cut so they fit nice, then use some fg filler to simply fill in the gap between the hood and liner around the hole......then you can just drill thru the louver perimeter into the liner and rivet the louvers to the liner.

As for them fitting the '33....if anyone is interested in such a product (similar but custom fit) I'm all ears.

Thanks guys!

[Mike N]

Louvers came today, great service, thanks Shane!
It might be a while before I have time to carve holes in the hood and fit them but I'll post photos when I do.

[gtaroger]

Top shelf ! Roger

[Itzdapig]

What I did the Mk3 hood after cutting the holes was to use 3/8 square spruce from the local hobby shop to keep the gap consistant all around the perimeter of the cut out as it tended to be rather irregular,I epoxied those in, then hsrf'd . Make sure you set the wood back a 1/4 or so to give yourself enough room for the filler.If you use the wood and place it just right you can screw the louvers to the hood into the wood and then they are removeable as well making for easier cleaning if needed.
http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc457/itzdapig/111/finishlouver5.jpg
http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc457/itzdapig/111/finishlouver2.jpg

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Itzdapig.....thanks for posting that! Nice to SEE what's going on instead of me trying to describe it! Great tip on using the wood to bridge the gap. Nice!!