[cruzinTLT]

I am planning on painting my 1964 Corvair myself (my first attempt), and I am trying to learn as much as possible from the great guys here on this forum. One area that I want a good understanding of is the painting of the louvered engine lid. The reason I am concerned is because there is so much sheetmetal that can be seen through the louvers. Do I spray the area through the louvers first, then the rest of the lid?, or will that area get enough paint during the spraying of the rest of the lid? I am trying to attach pictures of the lid.

[Fat Freddy]

HEy I have done a few loovered hoods and usually they will get enough paint in there just by spraying the top, but should you want real nice job,
do this ,
sand all around the loovere one at a time, and this is time consuming,
be sure to keep your paper wet.,
be sure to work it diagonally and not back and fourth.
be sure to keep from getting sand lines in front of each loover opening.
they will be hard to see while sanding. but pour a little hot water on the part and wait about 15 to 30 seconds then you will see what i mean. that is ahwt i call the wet test. it will let you see how a part will look freshly painted. ]
so then for the best job,
paint the underside of the part first. then
wet sand the over spray off of the top of the part. with 400 to 600 wet . then painmt the toip of the part.
I'm new to this sight , but trust me I have been the "finish guy " on ten cars
that have made best paint in more than a few shows..
later FAT FREDDY.

[baddbob]

I agree with what Freddy says, paint the backside first then the top. If she's going to be a nice car and you want the underside to be nice and glossy make sure to mask off the underside before you shoot the top. But most importantly keep the louver openings open so the spray blows through and coats the edges. If you mask the openings shut you risk the chance that the paint will bridge itself from the edge of the opening to the tape causing a big mess when it comes time to unmask. The thicker urethanes of today can bridge a gap easily, been there myself with a razor knife trimming the edges of the openings-not good. Bob

[cruzinTLT]

Thanks for the reply,guys. If I am understanding what you say, you would spray the underside first. The only problem is, that unlike most louvered hoods that I have seen on customs/hotrods, the Corvair hood has a stamped sheetmetal panel on the underside (that makes it a double-walled panel), so very little, if any paint would reach the backside of the louvers if you paint the underside first. Make sense? I guess I had originally thought about masking off the entire hood except for the louvers; spray the louver area until there is a good coverage under the louvers; then, if necessary, deal with the edge that may be left as Baddbob mentioned. I am just afraid that if I spray the whole hood with the thoughts that enough primer/paint would get in the area under the louvers that you will still be able to see unpainted areas at certain angles. I'll think about your comments and come up with a plan---you guys know better than I do how to deal with these challenges

[ckucia]

I certainly don't have anywhere near the experience of most of the guys on this board, but here are a few observations:

On most rods I've seen, the louvers are made to extend outward from the body surface. On your Corvair, they appear to be formed beneath the outer suface - in other words, the louvers are indented.

On the good side, no one can get a line of sight to the undersides of the louvers, like they could on louvers that are formed above the panel surface. It should be pretty easy to finish the exposed louver surface.

The thing I would worry about is getting the interior of that panel coated for corrosion resistance. If it can't come apart easily, I'm not sure what a good solution would be.

I'm sure there are some Corvair-dedicated boards out on the web. Might want to do some research to see what other guys have done. Heck, those cars have been around for 40 years now, someone has to have figured out what works and what doesn't.