Sheetmetal Louvers Fabrication - Punch Drunk Love

Next, the horizontal centerline is marked.

The marked-up backside of th eroll pan looks like a city grid. The intersection of each line marks where the louver will be punched.

Once ready, the pan is moved to the louver machine. Mike's louver machine is big enough to handle just about any type of body panel and is capable of punching sheetmetal or aluminum up to 16 gauge. Like many louver punches out there, Mike's punch is a mail-order one-- it comes with the press, dies, and blueprints to build the frame. Once at home, simply go down and buy the metal, follow the instructions, and start practicing.

Although there are several widths and styles of louver dies, for this panMike is going to use a standard 3-inch die. first, Mike lines up the intersecting points with the middle point of the male Louver die.

Then, by pressing this pedal down Mike can apply the correct amount of pressure needed to punch the louver. Once pressure is applied, the male portion of the die punches down into the female half of the die, stretching the metal into the shape of the dies, or louver if you will.

Normally the louver punch has a backstop that lets Mike know that the louver has been punched ot the correct depth. The backstop also automatically sets the distance between louvers for cinsistent punching. However, due to the confined nature of the roll pan with various flanges and that the lower half of the pan is rounded, Mike had to remove the backstop and punch the dies freehand, so to speak. Although it takes much more skill and practice, an experienced technician can handle the job fairly easy, especially once one masters the layout process.

When getting louvers punched, the majority of the time is spent marking out the panel. Once the punch gets rolling it's not long before the piece is finished. Here you can see that Mike is down to his last few punches and the clock is just creeping up on the 20-minute mar.

Dig the new, defined LMC Truck roll pan. As you can see, Mike pulled no 'punches' in brining out the hot rod look in this panel. (And once again, yes, I know that was lame--but come on, it was there for the taking!)

Here's another example of how louvers can really set off a panel. This is a hood Mike had just finished up when we arrived. If you want your very own louver punch setup, check out places like the Eastwood Company Van Sant Enterprises Mittler Brothers, or Fournier Enterprises. If not, start hunting down a ship in your area. If your area is Sourthern California give Mike a call, he'll get you set up.