Fender Louvers

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Major System Category: Body (Hood)
Task: Install fender louvers
Parts: Optional FF Part
Prerequisite Tasks: Mount the hood
Additional Costs: $199
Time Requirement: 6 - 10 hours
Date Started: October, 01, 2012
Date Completed: October, 10, 2012
The fender louvers are the opposite of the hood louvers. Where the hood louver drop into the hood, the fender louvers are designed to ride on top of the hood. They are also substantially bigger than hood louvers. I did some preliminary measurements and discovered that the fender louvers are cut to slightly different sizes. This is similar to what I found with the roof scoop. (i.e. I needed to find the center line of the car and the center line of the scoop and make sure they were aligned. then I needed to measure from the top edge of the door opening to common points on both sides of the scoop as it extended back across the roof.) There are similar challenges with the fender louvers.

Front end shot with both the fender and hood louvers set in place.

Like the hood louvers, the fender louvers require the vent slots to be cut. I used a Dremel with a heavy duty cut off wheel to trim out the vent slots. Next, I mounted a drum sander and smoothed out the cuts. I really need to get a second battery for the Dremel, it only runs about 15 minutes before performance falls off.

One of the fender louver pieces. The vents need to be cut and sanded.

Once I had the cuts made, it was time to figure out where to mount them (yeah, I know on the hood). There is definitely a drivers and passenger side version. They arrived with the kit. At the time, I was too busy disassembling the basic aluminum panels, hauling up the suspension and trying to get the car up on wheels to pay attention. However, now I am paying attention, and all I can say is - measure everything on the hood. The left and right versions do not measure out the same. When I measure the vent openings (parallel to the car's centerline) from the smallest to the largest, the passenger side is 3/4 inch longer.

I measured from the point of the hood to the first louver vent opening. I did the same measurement on both sides so the louvers started the same point on the hood.

I figured this out, because I could not seem to get the laser level to line up. I might get the top of the louver in line, but by the time I got to the fifth louver I was off. I decided it would be better to have the louvers closest to the cockpit lined up. I measured 21.5 inches from the point of the hood (between the latch and the door) down the seam of the fiber glass to the center line of the first vent. This gave me my front to back placement.

This is the contour that I used to measure the center line of the vents. This  is a line that is symmetrical.

There is a contour line that runs between the hood louver cut outs and the approximate location of the fender louvers. I measured from this line to identify the center line for each set of louver slots. Next I measured the width of each louver, identified the end points of the slot I needed to cut into the hood and marked it all up. I remeasured everything the next day, made adjustments and got ready  to cut into a perfectly good fiber glass hood.

Once I  figured out the proper location of the fender louver, I marked the location of the fender louver. This really helps when marking and cutting the louver slots in  the hood, and  for final placement of the fender louver.

I made my cuts into the fiber glass. Five slots on each side of different length. Thankfully this doesn't have to perfect and neat. The louver piece coves up up the cuts. I used the diamond cutting blade on the die grinder to get things started, then I used the jig saw to make the lateral cuts. I finished this off using the Dremel with a cutting blase to complete the end cuts. I sanded the rough edges, rechecked my work. Everything looks okay. I cleaned off the dust from the fiber glass on both the louver pieces and and the hood.

This the rough mark up for slots to be cut into the hood. Measure this several times and make sure  you're happy.

This is the passenger side of the hood. The sanded  seam can clear be seen.

This is the driver's side. These are the cuts in the hood. 

The fender and hood louvers are ready for bonding using 3M 8115 panel adhesive.

There is seam on the hood that needs to be sanded down before the fender louver pieces will sit flush. I ran a 60 grit sanding disc along this seam to eliminate the extra material. This is an area where the fiber glass is a little bit thinner than the rest. Therefore to reinforce things, I mixed up two batches of bondo and reinforced the thinner areas of the fiber glass between the cuts on the underside of the hood.

The final step is to feather in the fiber glass around each louver. This is going pretty good! Maybe one or two more layers of Bondo, then plenty of sanding.

I bonded the fender louvers without issue. I applied to beads of 3M 8115 panel adhesive, then held down the fender louvers using Gorilla Tape. I let it set up for 24 hours. I did not have optimal temperatures for this process. I need to eliminate the edges, so I plan to sand, then fiber glass the edge so it blends into the hood.