Side Vents

I have seen pictures of the side window treatments that double as vents for the engine bay on Pantera pictures I've seen on the Internet. Just like most of all the other projects on this Pantera, what I want to do is so customized that purchased parts just don't make sense.

Since I don't have any of the window pieces in my parts inventory that came with the car I decided that the vent should cover the entire side window space. I also want the vent to be functional. At least one side will be ported to the intake of the Coyote engine I've placed in the car. The passenger side has to have a fuel fill door for access to the fill tube I installed earlier.

The question was how to make this thing and make it look good. It took three tries to get it where I think it's going to work. The first attempt was to cut out a couple wood pieces that fill the space then spayed on some of that "good stuff" foam on the cutout. That's the stuff used to fill cracks in home construction. I then tried shaping the scoop thinking I would fiberglass the final form. Bottom line - not a good idea. I just couldn't get the shape I wanted - Strike One!

Second try I called the Frankenstein approach. I cut out a piece of sheet metal the shape of the window opening. To this I tacked up pieces of metal shaped to make the scoop. After a bunch of cutting and tacking to try and get the shape I wanted I had to stop. This thing was just plain ugly. I'm not sure I could ever duplicate a second piece - Strike Two.

The third attempt was a winner. Here's what I did. I cut another piece of sheet metal the shape of the window opening. Then I a second piece about 1 1/2" smaller all around the edges. Then I bent the curve I wanted for the scoop opening. Now it had to be welded to the flat larger piece that covers the window. But before I did any tacking I had to attach the flat piece to the car. Here's a shot of the flat piece attached with 4 screws.

To make installation and removal as easy as possible I decided to weld the screws onto the flat piece. Even though the body on my Pantera isn't anywhere near being ready for public viewing, I hate welding directly on the car but in this case I had no choice. Here's a shot of my set up with wet towels to try and protect the body from weld splatter.

Here's a shot of the bent pieces before they were welded up to the flat one.

Next I played with the bent piece until I got it to mate up with the flat piece as close as I could. It took a bunch of bending so that the welding could be done as easily as possible. Here's a shot of the tacked up bent metal vent on the flat piece.

The fit was really coming together so I decided to go ahead and make the other side the same way I did this one. When I had both pieces roughed out I did a little more tacking off the car and then did a little grinding off the welds. I used strips of fiberglass to give myself a smooth transition from the curved piece to the flat over the weld spots. Here's a shot of what the rough glassed piece looks like.

Then is was a matter of smoothing out the glass then doing a bunch of bondo work. Once it was smoothed so that I liked the overall shape it was time to make an opening for the fuel fill on the passenger side. I used an existing door from some other car and traced the shape on the vent. I carefully cut it out.

I used a fuel fill door hinge from an old BMW to mount the door back onto the vent. I had to do a bunch of modification to the hinge but once done it opened and closed just the way I wanted it to. Once the door operated like I wanted I then closed the door and bondoed the door completely closed. Crazy, right? I was told by a friend of mine who did a bunch of body work that the only way to get seams as smooth as possible was to bondo them closed then cut them out just like you want them. Once the bondo dried I used a grinder to carefully cut the seam out just like I wanted it to look. This method also gave me a really smooth transition between the door and the vent. Here's a shot of the final product.

Finally I put a little primer on the vents and put them on the car. Here's the driver's side side view and front view.

Here's the passenger side side view and front view with the fuel door opened and closed.

Next I'll work on putting tubing openings on both vents to give me into the Coyote intake. I'm going to wait to do this after I figure out the air filter box and tubing requirements sizes. Check back for more updates later.