How much ro remove Louver holes ?

[Racer57]

I have a rear window louver and hate the way it screws up the body lines and want it removed. Local body shops in my area don't want to mess with it (prefer insurance jobs) due to probably having to repaint most of car due to clear coat. Plus headliner removal and refitting.

How much should I expect to pay if I find someone I trust ?

[torredcuda]

$1- $20,000. Seriously, wide open question - are you asking just how much to weld up and finish work a few holes, paint the whole car or something in between? Cost depends on what needs done, condition of current paint (paint over or need to strip?) etc.

[anlauto]

I'm guessing you don't have a vinyl roof, that would make the job easy

[RUNCHARGER]

It will be a ton of money to repair a couple of holes. It will depend if you find someone good enough to do a professional match/blend on the paint. Bodyshop hourly charges and material costs are out of control and you don't want backyard Bernie doing that job.

[Racer57]

I guess that was a dumb question. Was posted out of frustration.   Paint portion of job would be the easiest part.

[Xghobo]

It's going to cost a lot more than you will want to pay, I would only do it if I planned on painting the whole car then it would not be a substantial add on.
Me personally would just enjoy the louvers as you don't see that option very often.

[Skdmark]

Could you remove the louvers and put low profile painted fasteners back in the holes as a lower cost alternative?
Not ideal, but if you really hate the louvers and a weld/repaint is too costly.

[anlauto]

Could you remove the louvers and put low profile painted fasteners back in the holes as a lower cost alternative?
Not ideal, but if you really hate the louvers and a weld/repaint is too costly.

This is not a terrible idea...some carriage bolts in the large bottom holes, and six small screws up top  painted to match

[torredcuda]

Could you remove the louvers and put low profile painted fasteners back in the holes as a lower cost alternative?
Not ideal, but if you really hate the louvers and a weld/repaint is too costly.

This is not a terrible idea...some carriage bolts in the large bottom holes, and six small screws up top  painted to match

I like the louvers but even if I didn`t I`d live with them before having bolt heads and screws sticking out of the body.

[YYZ]

If you don't have a vinyl roof, then the question becomes where do you blend the repaired paint to?

IMHO filling the holes isn't too bad — a skilled TIG welder could do it with minimal disruption to the surrounding metal and paint.  But then the bodywork and paint to make the repairs disappear will require a ton of finesse.  Small airbrush, maybe? Spot blend the area, especially if it's on a 'Cuda?

IMHO the headliner isn't a big deal.  You could pull the sail panels and rear window trim, and just drop the last foot or so off the liner. Don't even touch the bows.

[jimynick]

What colour is the car and is it currently clear coated? Picture of the affected area?

[Racer57]

Clear Coat

[torredcuda]

Blending out the color is easy with base/clear but IMO blending in the clear will ALWAYS leave a noticeable spot eventually. I would blend the base color and clear the roof, dutchman and both quarters and depending on how close the color match is you may have to also blend into the trunk lid.

[tparker]

Just a thought, They do make a clear blender that allows you to blend a repair without doing the whole panel. I am going to use it on my sister in laws truck in a couple months. This just a DIY type solution and not the pro version. Not sure how well clear coat blenders work and if it is good enough for a good paint job. But throwing it out there as a potential option. There are dozens of vids on youtube on doing spot repairs. Unfortunately the shops that don't want to do it are probably the most skilled at fixing smaller areas and blending in the most cost effective.

With that said, I don't think it is that much more work to clear a panel. 

[cuda hunter]

You could get the correct size small rivets instead of nuts and bolts.

Did your car originally come with the louvers package? 

Looks awesome by the way!!