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Re-rivet louvers?

1K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  Psycholist 
#1 ·
Just curious if anyone has re-riveted their louvers. I've got a few loose rivets :rolleyes: which make the car sound like I'm carrying a trunk full of scrap sheet metal.

No worries about damaging the black coating. That ship sailed long ago. These louvers are almost completely silver now, and they will be completely silver once I'm done with them.

Thanks,
Keith
 
#4 ·
The rivets are either similar to or the same as aircraft rivets. They require a bucking bar and a hammer of some sort (they use pneumatic ones here at work). I'm sure that if you look around you can find replacements if you can't tighten those up...which I'm suspecting will be the case because more than likely the holes have been wallowed out and are now larger than the rivet by more than the rivet can expand.

I re-painted my louvers back around 1997-ish or so. Scuffed, prepped with acetone and used satin black Krylon. It still looks good all these years later even being out in the weather!
 
#5 ·
I re-painted my louvers back around 1997-ish or so. Scuffed, prepped with acetone and used satin black Krylon. It still looks good all these years later even being out in the weather!
So the Krylon has held up to PNW weather, huh? That gives me something to think about. My plan was to strip what little remains of the black coating and polish them... Maybe what I'll do is polish them, and then if I don't like how it looks on the car, I can pull them back off, scuff, prep, and paint.

Polishing them is probably a lot of work for something I may ultimately undo, but I've never seen a Daytona with polished louvers. Plus I'm stripping the clear and polishing the rims anyway. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Pics coming soon.
 
#6 ·
Ok, so here's several stages of progress on refinishing them.

Top Louver is all the way to 1000 grit.
2nd is 500,
3rd is 220,
4,5, and half of 6 is an 80 grit bristle disc.

I'll go one step finer with the sanding then break out the aluminum polish.

Haven't gotten down to the loose rivets, so no tightening yet.
 

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#7 ·
Actually the Krylon held up to Florida weather...MUCH worse!

As for polishing the louvers...hmmm...I looked at the picture and I gotta say, it could go either way. I think they look cool like that, but on the car...it's going to depend on the car. It's going to have to have the right color combo in order for it to look good. However, the potential to look awesome is certainly there!
 
#8 ·
Turns out there's only one pair loose. Haven't fiddle with trying to tighten them yet. Probably this weekend.

Color-wise the car is white. Seems like most 87 Pacificas were. The rims are going to be polished. In fact one is already done. The question I have to ask myself (is do I feel lucky?) is do I think it will look better if the louvers match the rims, the black trim, or neither (like maybe a machine turned finish).
 
#10 ·
By visibility do you mean my ability to see out? If so then I think the underside would be more important for that. You can't tell in the picture, but the underside is still almost completely black. I'll either refinish the black on that side, or go with an accent color.

If you mean others ability to see the car from the rear... It's an object that's 6 1/2' wide, 4' tall, and 15' long.

I am mulling over the idea of going with a matching white for the top side.
 
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