hello looking for advice before i break something i am in process of removing rear deck lid louver assembly from 1982 308 in prep for possible rear deck lid painting. I have drilled out all the rivets. I have removed the inner frame and mesh. and then drilled out more rivets it looks to me like the louver assembly should now push out the top (the deck lid is off the car of course) but the louver assembly just doesnt seem to want to budge and everything is thin metal should I tap it out all around, or are there some other tricks? it can gently pry in between the louvers and the hood, and there is slight motion between them, so it is not completely stuck
Thanks. Some rivets were binding even when drilled out, and there was a bunch of silicone adhesive that was being difficult. Eventually, I got done with minimal trauma to my arm, but no trauma to the metal
Mine has been removed and was poorly put back in. I was considering removing it and installing riv nuts and using black cap screws to hold it in place. This will allow me to remove it in the future for serious detailing work and polishing around the lid.
I’m exploring the riv nut tool and kits now. If I find one with good metric ones, I’ll post it up here.
a summary for those who are curious: the rear louver assembly is held in place by approximately ten thousand black small rivets. the first layer holds a slim piece on one side and then a complex backbone on the other side. this backbone is very easy to bend, and the rivets are easy to drill the head off, but the body remains stubbornly stuck in the deck lid. Image Unavailable, Please Login
underneath that slim backbone is a wire mesh that is also ridiculously fragile, held by a couple of separate rivets at its lower edge finally, the main louver assembly is held by additionaly rivets. these must be drilled out. The heads of the rivets pop off real easily, but the body of the rivet still holds the louvers in place, so more careful drilling is needed. finally, the base of the louvers is held to the deck like with a black goop, that is still soft and flexible 40 years later Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login I put the decklid back in place to transport to the body shop, for paint touch up and polishing
Quite the undertaking. You are a better man than I. Now you have to psych yourself up to reassemble all the pieces without damaging them and without scratching the new paint on the engine cover. I believe you will need some type of low profile rivet gun to reinstall some of the rivets as a standard size gun will not allow access to some areas. Believe there are previous posts in this regard. You may also find some useful information in this regard from a couple of You Tubers, one being Ratarossa in the UK and the other possibly Lou Trottier in Canada. For me, I think it is best to leave these cars assembled as they were from the factory. I detail between the engine cover louvers of my 308 with a polishing cone on a Dremel tool, and fairly infrequently at that. Good luck moving forward. Hope you have a good outcome.
