Heat evacuator on Avanti

[grobb284]

Here are some photos of the heat evacuator with the stainless wire mesh installed on the Avanti hood..

Will take some additional photos once the hood is installed.

And yes, I strained myself installing the wire mesh. (Second oldest joke in the world)

[SN-60]

Should be interesting watching 'heat waves' rising up in front of you on a hot summer's day....Better outside than inside the car though!...Nice work.

[sweetolbob]

I like that a lot. How did you install the mesh on the under side of the hood?

[lschuc]

Interesting concept. By coincidence, the previous owner of Raymond Loewy's 1963 Avanti in France also did something like this to lower the underhood temperatures. In his case, he had three concentric circles placed in the rear portion of the hood bulge with screen mesh covering the holes from the inside and the edges covered with stainless steel edging.

[grobb284]

I like that a lot. How did you install the mesh on the under side of the hood?

We used 10-32 weld nuts secured with a marine adhesive to the fiberglass. The stainless mesh then had holes made to clear the weld nut towers. The stainless wire mesh was secured with 3/4 diameter rubber bushings with 1/4 holes, which slipped over the weld nut towers.

10-32 stainless panheads with washers were then drawn up against the rubber bushings.

I'll try to get some photos of the hood underside early next week for you.

[grobb284]

Lew, any photos of that Avanti's hood?

I attended a British car show to get ideas for the mesh. It was used on Aston Martin vehicles, and Lotus. I got the idea to modify the hood as if Studebaker was making a competitor for the Grand Sport in 1963. Picked up a Dana 44 ICA housing with bosses for plumbing a rear end cooler.

[Corvanti]

nice looking job!!! i'll take the opposite view of Ed - if you are in the north, once moving, it should keep the drivers side windshield warm enough to keep from icing.

i've loaded this pic up before of the louvers on my Avanti. i've had some inquiries about it, but i don't know how the P.O. had this done in fiberglass. i purchased her in Clearwater, FL in '09. maybe someone in the Tampa/St. Pete area (or others) know how it was done...

[SN-60]

That's very interesting about Corvanti's former Avanti....How the heck did someone louver a fiberglass hood??????????????????

[sbca96]

That is really cool. I like the rounded corners, good attention to detail.

Tom

[grobb284]

That is really cool. I like the rounded corners, good attention to detail.

Tom

Tom,
If you are speaking of the opening for the wire mesh, you will appreciate this. We made those radii proportional, using 1 3/4 diameter at the top, and 1 3/8 diameter at the bottom.

If you are speaking of Corvanti's louvers, I like them too.

[junior]

Tom,
We made those radii proportional, using 1 3/4 diameter at the top, and 1 3/8 diameter at the bottom.

I overlooked that detail...I would have laid-out the cut, made the cut, then looked at hole and figured something wasn`t quite right. Very nice, as is the whole dang build! junior

[52-fan]

Very well thought out modification. Many folks won't know that it is not factory.

[sbca96]

I was referring to the wire mesh opening. The rounded corners serve two purposes, one is matching the openings on the rest of the car, and two lessening the risk of cracks in the fiberglas.

Tom

[driver32]

What size wire mesh did you use? How big is the "opening" between wires - is this like a 10 x 10 or more towards a 50 x 50 mesh http://www.bwire.com ?

I do like the rounded corners a lot - is this something that you think can be cut by hand using some aviation snips? Or do you think it is more likely something that must be cut using a waterjet or laser machine?

[grobb284]

The mesh is 8 x 8, with the wire in the vicinity of .045.
The mesh was not cut with any radii, they were either straight cuts or stair stepped cuts. Only the hood could be cut with tapered or round cuts.
We used a thin abrasive cut off wheel in a electric hand grinder, cutting the wire in small increments.