Going from Roush louvers to Silverhorse louvers
?
11-05-2008, 09:33 PM
#24
4th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2007
Location: OC, California
Posts: 1,039
I know what you mean about the Roush spoiler... it looks great with the Roush louvers. Since I have the stock spoiler (pre-2007) I think the SHR louvers will look better with it than the Roush louvers do.
11-05-2008, 10:03 PM
#25
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mechanicsville, Va
Posts: 684
A couple different places sell them like americanmuscle but not many sell them prepainted. I would save yourself a bunch of headaches and just buy prepainted from shr, they know how to deal with the painting of it. I know it seems pricey but the amount of change it adds to the car is well worth it trust me.
11-06-2008, 08:48 AM
#27
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,679
I just got my car out in the daylight after installing shr lovuers in my garage. HOLY ORANGE PEEL BATMAN!!!!
My car is black. Any imperfection is going to stand out. I get that. I bought these pre-painted. The perimeter of the louvers looks less than perfect - having only slight orange peel. The louver part, the part that slants in towards the car, has really bad orange peel.
I wish I'd have looked at these closer before installing them. I would have called SHR and discussed returning them. And before doing this again, I'd definitely talk to a local body shop which I trust (the one that pained my hood in my case) about having them to do this.
HOWEVER - I'm not sure its a no-brainer that a local shop would to a better job. Getting the orange peel off these or any other painted surface requires wet-sanding which is normally done with some kind of power sander made for auto body work. These louvers have small tight spaces that would require sanding by hand and I don't know if sanding by hand is going to produce a good result.
All that said, the overall situation isn't all that bad. Because of the angles and reflections, I'm not sure that a mirror finish on the louvered part is all that critical. The louvers represent broken lines from the rest of the car and offer a far different reflection than the rest of the car. So overall it still looks OK. Just not perfect - and enough to bug me if I think about it too much.
My car is black. Any imperfection is going to stand out. I get that. I bought these pre-painted. The perimeter of the louvers looks less than perfect - having only slight orange peel. The louver part, the part that slants in towards the car, has really bad orange peel.
I wish I'd have looked at these closer before installing them. I would have called SHR and discussed returning them. And before doing this again, I'd definitely talk to a local body shop which I trust (the one that pained my hood in my case) about having them to do this.
HOWEVER - I'm not sure its a no-brainer that a local shop would to a better job. Getting the orange peel off these or any other painted surface requires wet-sanding which is normally done with some kind of power sander made for auto body work. These louvers have small tight spaces that would require sanding by hand and I don't know if sanding by hand is going to produce a good result.
All that said, the overall situation isn't all that bad. Because of the angles and reflections, I'm not sure that a mirror finish on the louvered part is all that critical. The louvers represent broken lines from the rest of the car and offer a far different reflection than the rest of the car. So overall it still looks OK. Just not perfect - and enough to bug me if I think about it too much.
11-06-2008, 08:56 AM
#29
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Arizona
Posts: 471
I have the SHR louvers and absolutely love them (had the stick on louvers before that). Do yourself a HUGE favor though if you are going to get them - buy the prepainted ones from SHR. I went through 3 sets of unpainted ones with 2 different paint shops til I got a set done properly. Many shops aren't used to painting Lexan and are not going to take the time to properly mask off the louvers prior to painting. If you are a perfectionist like me, save yourself a lot of headaches and get them prepainted from SHR.
11-06-2008, 09:44 AM
#30
4th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2007
Location: OC, California
Posts: 1,039
I wonder if anyone else has had that problem?Here's a new question... our cabins are pretty quiet. Does installing these louvers change that?