Louvres for Slippery Anne

[Duncan Grimmond]

I would guess that the inconsistency is caused by the difficulty in holding the central part of the forward edge of the louvre in the middle. The forming force would tend to pull that narrow strip out of the clamp and allow the distortion. Unless you can get a very powerful grip there, the forming of the louvre will pull the metal from the grip?

[Timothy P]

Hello Mark,
Sorry for the difficulties you have been having with your pictures rotating. 
'Management' has now added a plugin to the forum which (fingers firmly crossed), should solve the problem.
As a test I downloaded your image of Slippery's louvres, (it downloaded in the correct orientation), and re-uploaded it into your post, which seems to have worked. I cannot rule out that this is down to how different devices work though, so I look forward to seeing more of your brilliant pictures, hopefully the right way up!
All the best

[Steve Bryant]

Mark,
I would suspect that the louvers on the original car started out being nicely uniform but ended up the way they are in the photo from use.
Stephen

[Tony Saward]

How did you cut the thin and straight slot in the Aluminium before pressing out the louvres. When using a proper louvre punch set, the upper punch acts like a guillotine and shears the aluminium. This was not possible with the system you have used. Otherwise I am very impressed with your work and would have tried it out on the bonnet louvres on my GE Cup. They cost quite a lot of money to have done professionally.

[Mark Atkinson]

Mark,
I would suspect that the louvers on the original car started out being nicely uniform but ended up the way they are in the photo from use.
Stephen

Hello Stephen,
                    
It would be good to think that was the reason for the somewhat grotty looking louvres in the period picture, but the picture was taken at Brooklands in April 1925 before the car had ever raced, indeed the car was not quite finished at this point, but, I do think that it was probably the first time it actually ran on the track.

One of the hardest parts of trying to replicate this car and to get it as close as possible to how it looked is the poor quality of the original bodywork. I probably need to 'detail' my louvres to emulate the originals more closely!


By the way, that is a very nice can in your post today.

Regards, Mark.

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How did you cut the thin and straight slot in the Aluminium before pressing out the louvres. When using a proper louvre punch set, the upper punch acts like a guillotine and shears the aluminium. This was not possible with the system you have used. Otherwise I am very impressed with your work and would have tried it out on the bonnet louvres on my GE Cup. They cost quite a lot of money to have done professionally.

Hello Tom,

I tried two methods, firstly using a cold chisel, which I found to be a little unpredictable and inconsistent. For the second and subsequent slots I used my Dremel with a rotary cutting disc, which proved to be very effective, neat and accurate.
I think the cold chisel method is effective, but, I was worried that with one wrong blow of the hammer I could ruin my panel.

Regards, Mark.

[Erich]

Beautiful work, Mark. I'm curious about the bulges on the side of the car on the driver's side. What do they cover?

Erich

[Mark Atkinson]

Beautiful work, Mark. I'm curious about the bulges on the side of the car on the driver's side. What do they cover?

Erich

Hello Erich,

The small fairings simply cover the suspension, the large bullet accommodates the drivers from hip to toe. The car has a Z seat configuration, but, the main body tub is very narrow, so the bulges really do just wrap around the driver and passenger. In fact the passenger has to sit at a very awkward angle with the right arm resting on the bodywork behind the drivers shoulder and only a much smaller bulge just covering the hip and with legs twisted down into the foot well. both occupants have to sit on seats with a base which is lower than the chassis cross member, which is excellent for the C of G, but makes for an interesting driving position!

Thank you for your comments.

Regards, Mark.

[Timothy P]

Hello Mark,
Sorry for the difficulties you have been having with your pictures rotating. 
'Management' has now added a plugin to the forum which (fingers firmly crossed), should solve the problem.
As a test I downloaded your image of Slippery's louvres, (it downloaded in the correct orientation), and re-uploaded it into your post, which seems to have worked. I cannot rule out that this is down to how different devices work though, so I look forward to seeing more of your brilliant pictures, hopefully the right way up!
All the best

Sorry for misleading you slightly first time around, we had to remove the plugin to troubleshoot another fault.
'Management' has been working feverishly, and the plugin has been reinstated. My initial tests are good, so fingers firmly crossed, you should have more luck with your images now.
All the best