reverse curved louvers pulmax

[rexrogers]

Started working on a hood side layout for a custom art deco fiberglass car
The owner wanted Dusenberg inspired louvers and this was the rough idea of the layout design he had started with. I have set the pulmax with my 3/4" die set and spent the rest of the day working on the layout, i need to tweak it some More not a 100% sure i like the current one.
http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=3877

When the center line is at a huge angle like this which makes the front louvers almost flat the cut line of the louvers has the tendency to get too close to itself, i could change the radius for each louver but that will open up a huge can of worms in my layout. might bring the center line down some and go from there. the radius of the louvers are 26"
http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=3878
Here is a practice run of the 26" radius louvers a few ripples but that was operator error i ran the panel through way to fast just wanted to get a few cut.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=3879
this is a 24" radius with the center line for the louver bisecting the panel kinda like the way the fan out.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=3880
We will se how they look on Monday right now just blue dye tape changes can be made, The hood sides were already made for this car so i will work around them and will have to add some material for the pivot point.
I should reload some of the other curved louver hood side to get my mind back in the layout stage.

[RobC]

I don't envy you Rex,

To my eye, the last four louvers at the shorter end (right of pic) look to be laying too flat to conform to the pattern overall. It's hard to describe in text what a drawing would show in a second but I believe the line you are using for your radius centers should be lower at that end bring the latter louvers more vertical and your lower ends more into a straight line.

Cheers,
Rob

[Rick (madera)]

I don't envy you Rex,

To my eye, the last four louvers at the shorter end (right of pic) look to be laying too flat to conform to the pattern overall. It's hard to describe in text what a drawing would show in a second but I believe the line you are using for your radius centers should be lower at that end bring the latter louvers more vertical and your lower ends more into a straight line.

Cheers,
Rob

My eyes saw the same thing:eek:

[rexrogers]

I agree the front louver just look off, The plan is to lower the center line I will have to see what that is going to do to the back side might end up changing the radius to get it to work out, might have to change the radius as they are being punched I don't know if that will be feasible to do with out totally killing the time.

[oldgoaly]

Hi Rex!

you have a neat project there! something about that little short one on the left. I agree with Rob about the angle of the 4 on right.
The classic Duesy pic
http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=3888

Many are more famous for the header pipes through the hood
http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=3887
Something will come to you, just might take a few experiments! Good Luck! tt

[Bill Gibson]

Why not swing all of the louvers from the same point?
That way the are the same distance apart all the way around.

If you want the front louvers to lay back more than the rear, you would just have to have the point higher than the the top edge of the line of louvers.

I guess I would have to see the hood on the car to understand the lay out you are using now.

[Richard K]

Rex,

A while back you had some questions on a curved louver job. You ended up using a classic pattern like the Dusenburg. In that layout all louvers are radiused off of ONE common center. The radiuses get larger as the louvers progress across the panel. You got lots of positive comments on that job; and it was beautiful.

You and Real Hot Rods specialize in traditional aesthetics, and you're very good at it. I'd be careful of straying too far off that path. A job like this will not stand the test of time, in my opinion. It is a kind of post modern deconstructionist idea. Certainly not in keeping with the investment quality cars Real Hot Rods is noted for.

Best of luck, keep up the good work.

[rexrogers]

A Lot of layout since my last post. Richard i agree with you on getting carried away with something different just to be different, On Ray's 5 window i wanted to do some fancy hood side but after studding the car and through Ray we decided just to run stock style louver layout on the project. To be honest if my car ever gets far enough along where i will need hood side i will probably stick with a traditional set up.

Back to the project at hand i will post a pic of the car these are going on.
My first layout was based on a rough sketch that was given with the project after the initial layout did not meet our goal, I tried to find something that would work out. For this project a good knowledge of a cad cam program might have saved me some time and frustration.

I moved the center line around all over the part and change radius's numerous times. in the end the center line ended up being on a arc and the radius did change for the first set. Early on in my layout work i though that an arced center lin would work but getting it laid out accurately was difficult so i kept trying some thing else. I personally like some of the intermediate parterns that we came up with but we were trying to keep the last louver and the back of the hood close to the same angle.

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4120

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4121

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4122

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4123
this is good layout just not in tune with the back edge.

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4124

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4125

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4126

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4127

[Tisdelski]

Hi Rex,

Is that a Terry Cook car ??

If not what is it and can we see more of it ??

Thanks,
Gary

[rexrogers]

The car belongs to Mr. Cook He is letting me punch the louvers in the hood side for him.
I was able to get both hood sides cut today. On Monday i will reattach the top side of the hood sides and metal finish them out I think with the angle of the car and with the lovers pattern they should work out fine, there are ton of variables when it comes to laying these out, but it comes a time when you need to act.

I will post some pics of a the past curved louver hood sides for you to compare the different layouts.

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4131

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4132

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4133

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4134


past hood sides curved louvers
http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4135

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4136

http://metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=50&pictureid=4137

[Carbuilder]

Rex how do you determine the pivot point to get the correct radius. I am planning on the curved lovers on my 36 Roadster thanks. Are you using the standard pullmax style die for punching the louver the one the has the pivoting end stop, or something else.

[Doug98105]

Rex how do you determine the pivot point to get the correct radius. I am planning on the curved lovers on my 36 Roadster.r .
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Dan,

Laying out things like this is a perfect use of 2D CAD. It takes a fraction of the time to hand layout the pattern.

Here are a few layouts for louvers done in CAD. This took about half an hour .

All the locations (louver start/end and pivot point) are in the CAD file. For jobs like this sometimes it's best to get a large format printout and double-back tape it directly to your work piece.

By varying the lover radius or changing the pivot point you can get whatever look you want. The possibilities are endless.

On edit: Pivot points on horizontal line, constant radius.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=3&pictureid=4138


Same pivot point, changing radius.


http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=3&pictureid=4139


Pivot points on line 20 degrees up from horizontal, constant radius.


http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=3&pictureid=4140


By simple changes you get an idea of how the layout will look. In this case of the three I like the last one best.


Doug

[Carbuilder]

Doug the last one is close to what I am thinking for my 36.