Valvoline.com

Aluminum Paneling

Cool looks and a cooler engine

Aluminum paneling is a great way to dress up the underside of your vehicle's hood and fenders. It also looks good in the trunk or on the firewall. It can be polished for a bright shine, or rubbed with a Scotch pad for a satin finish with a fine grain.

Simple Materials

Most any car can benefit from this treatment. Cars like the '41 Willys and the Cobra lend themselves well to an aluminum front-end treatment because of the large gaping hole where the grille was removed to allow for more air to get to the radiator.

It's not difficult to dress up your street rod or custom car with aluminum paneling by using cardboard and a sheet of aluminum available from most steel yards or metal recycling centers. The pieces we used for this particular project came from a scrap metal recycling yard.

Simple Work

Aluminum is fairly easy to work with. The key to a nicely finished project is to take your time, measure carefully and use cardboard templates to work out the design before actually cutting and bending the aluminum.

This particular project required five pieces of aluminum in the nose section of a Cobra replica to deflect air around the radiator for better cooling. They consisted of one for the opening at the top of the radiator, one for the bottom, one piece folded up on each side for the sides of the oil cooler, and two pieces for each side of the radiator.

Ample Bonus

The bonus of adding these aluminum pieces is improved airflow to the radiator. Your car will not only look cool, but should run cooler as well.

Resources

Len Ewell, Boffin Motorsports, 12975 SW Watkins Ave., Tigard, OR 97223, 503-624-2659, len@boffinms.com

Finish Line, Inc., 21011 Johnson Street, Suite 102, Pembroke Pines, FL 33029, 888-436-9113 or 954-436-9101, www.cobraaccessories.com