ultimate hack hood vents?

I went down to the local wreckage yard (small town, middle of desert) and they are asking $45 for a couple labaron hood vents which is more than I want to pay for them. I'd rather get those marine ones from another post for that money. The questions are though, is the hood just 1 piece of sheet metal with bracing and how thick? Secondly has anyone ever thought of just cutting multiple straight lines in your hood with a cut off disk and using your pliars or a screw driver to bend the trailing edge up like a louver?
I cant think of any problems with this idea as long as the edges were smoothed off a bit and painted. If I didn't like the results I could always keep the cuts I make small enough that I could always cut them all out and install labaron vents later.
Lets hear the bad all the whys now. :dunno:

wow thats pretty salty fpr the vents, I payed $15 for mine and felt like I got jacked. They make a special tool for the louvers, you may check into that, unless you're damn good with a screwdriver and pliers. The hood is one piece with supports. There was a guy who posted picks of his vents that came out of a Datsun 280Z I think, looked pretty nice.

Heres the thread.............http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31182 Enjoy!

I think that trying to do louvers youself could get kind of rough if your not looking for anything pretty go for it. Like you say you can cut it out and put in some vents. Check ebay, my vents are aftermarket jobs from a suburu wrx got them on EBay for twenty-bucks shipped.

I agree those vents do look good on a cherokee. I had an old sheet metal box I was getting rid of so I practiced cutting and bending louvers in it like I had mentioned and they didn't look that bad. I think the hack hood vents could look pretty good if I spent a little more time working on them. I took a couple of photos but I don't have a site to host them or I'd share.

GroversXJ, email them to me and I will put them on my server and give you a link.

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GroversXJ said:

I agree those vents do look good on a cherokee. I had an old sheet metal box I was getting rid of so I practiced cutting and bending louvers in it like I had mentioned and they didn't look that bad. I think the hack hood vents could look pretty good if I spent a little more time working on them. I took a couple of photos but I don't have a site to host them or I'd share.

Click to expand...

Don't use a screw driver, use a wood chisel to do the bends also lay down a piece of steel behind the slot to pry against, the steel plate will keep the hood metal from bending down while you are bending up, they will come out much neater but no where near as neat as a louvering press. Someone here also used some kind of mobil home vents he got at Home Depot and I have looked a time or two at similar only they slide open and closed similar to a floor or wall register, cost was under $5 ea... or you could go fancy and get em in brass or wrought iron for that 'colonial look'

Old Man, I emailed you a couple of photos of what I did for practicing my louvered hood vents. The first two I did with the screw driver didn't work as well (didn't bend evenly and stay straight) but if I'd have thought about putting something stiffer to pry off of behind it they may have turned out better. The second two I did with a needle node pliars and they tended to stay straighter and look better.
I did look at home depot for some vents but the ones I saw weren't what I was looking for or would look bad. I think they didn't have a very big selection, assuming that because the Ridgecrest Home Depot is the first "smaller" store and "smaller" is a relative term.

These photos were taken at night so they aren't the greatest but it gives you an idea. You can also see where the paint was scraped off on the first two louvers so it looks uneven but they aren't that bad.
and from another angle

Thanks again old man.

Any body with a hole already cut in their hood have an idea on the thickness of the sheet metal?

I sarted working on hacking up my hood and bending in some louvers and it turned out pretty good so far I think. The hood sheet metal is thicker than I expected but it bent just find with something stiff to pry off of. Have taken a couple of photos of the what I have done so far but I still need to little grinding and burr removal before I can finish paint them. Luckily I live out here in the desert and I don't have to worry about rust because there is no rain/snow/humidity/salt to get rust started out here. When I get done with the grinding/deburring and painting I'll take a few more pics and try to set up a site to host them so I can post them here. :spin1:
In another thread someone said epoxy primer is a must for hood louvers but I'm not sure if I can get it or even need it with where I live. Anybody have a suggestion on if I would need it or where to get epoxy primer?