Seriously thinking about the SHR louvers, but concerned about long term scratches, etc.

For those of you who have had them a while, how are they doing?

 

doing fine. installed in May of last year. perfect color match. fun installation. i tested them right away with water, and driven in all kinds of wet weather with no probs. I had a scratch on the inside clear component and tried to polish it with toothpaste, but it just made a small 'cloud'. looking to find something better to clean that up. I think they look cool and my kids LOVE them.

 

this may be a dumb question, but here goes: i was thinking about getting the unpainted ones and having a local shop paint em for me. how exactly does one see out once they're painted though? i was under the impression that the entire louver is transparent.

 

You don't paint the whole louver. The hard part about that is that you have to tape it off before painting to see through the slots. If done locally, make sure their edges are taped straight, otherwise you'll be able to see where the paint should or shouldn't be on the see through areas.

I guess if you don't care about seeing through them, you could just paint the whole louver and that would be easier, but I kinda like being able to see in and out through them..

 

You might take some time to tape it yourself before you have it painted. Could save you a bunch of money. I'm sure it takes a while for a paint shop to tape it off well if they don't do it all the time, and you'll be paying for that time. Never hurts to ask the paint shop how much they would take off.

Dustin

 

thanks guys - i figured that was the solution, properly taping off the louver, but i'm not familiar with the actual physical design so i wasn't sure. i just might pick up a set now

 

Several people have tried having their own shop do it, and few have had success. Get the prepaints.

 

really? is the masking job that difficult? i suppose that would explain the huge jump in price, though- $334 compared to $150. that's what's always kept me from buying em; i can't pull the trigger on that pricetag...

 

I had SHR paint them in house figuring that any risk is all theirs. It took a long time to get them but when they arrived the paint was, and is still, fine. Only thing is that I had a shop install mine and they managed to get a ripple on the upper mating surface of one. It's not much but you can see it in the right light, it does bug me.
The shop says that particular louver was rippled when they got it but I can't verify that as i never noticed it before i gave it them. Frankly I reckon the body shop did it by not laying an even bead of urethane.

 

The masking job is a pain in the butt,just check around and see what a local shop will charge you. I got lucky and got a shop to quote me a price on the product just by looking at them. They told me $125 to paint my Louvers and Side Scoops and I jumped on it. They told me when I picked them up if they had known how har it was to mask up the little windows it would have been alot more in labor.

Good luck.

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