Hello,

I have a 72 cutlass. Initially I painted the louvers black to match the bumpers which I also painted black, however I got chrome bumpers, and want to paint the louvers correctly. I have an extra set so this is no problem, however I am not sure the "correct" way to do them. I have seen the body color, as well as body color with the flat section on the top polished and the rest body color? Could anyone tell me the correct way that these should be done? Thanks,
Joe

 

Mine are entirely chrome plated...

 

The ones I had were black and chrome. On a red car.

 

I've had both all chrome and another that was body color for the flat portion, then the ridges were left chrome. Not sure what was correct, but have seen both of these. John

 

I have them on my car. Mine are black and chrome. I just re-did them today because they were starting to chip. I'll post a picture tomorow, they aren't perfect, but they look okay for a driver.

 

From the factory, the louvers are the same color as the body, and the top of the "fins" are bright silver. Here's a picture that I scanned from the 1872 Oldsmobile ordering information.

You can do the louvers in whatever fashion you want because it's your car. If you want it to look factory, this is the way to go. Oh, BTW if you're doing the factory thing? Only the Rallye 350 came with a yellow bumper. If you painted your bumper black, gotta change it to chrome.

 

Rob, if you have chrome plated louvers on your car, uhhhh, I guess you know that the Supreme never came with them on the hood??? Someone changed out the hood on your car. The louvers have a special cutout and attaching bracket that the Supreme hood never did. You knew that though, right?

 

thank you for the photo. I thought that's how they were supposed to be. The car does have the chrome bumpers, and the correct "S" grilles with the horizontal grey bars instead of the black crate grilles.

Joe

 

Can you post the whole page where that photo came from? It'd be interested in having it as a reference.

 

Right, the Std Supreme had no louvers.
I have the W29 hood, that was included with the 442 pkg without OAI. The W29 louvers have different part numbers than the regular non-W29 louvers, leading me to believe the W29 ones are solid chrome.

From the factory, the vert could have easily came the way Lady looks now.
However, she did start life as a Supreme, so I do guess the hood was replaced, but VERY long ago... It looks no newer than anything else on her. Grilles look her age, too.
The ones who did add the hood did forget the all important hood script that I added last year...

 

What were the part numbers on your W29 louvers? I know a guy who has one, and I'm just curious.

 

According to the assy manual, part # for W29 louvers are 411080 (RH) and 411081 (LH).
Regulars were 410384 (RH) and 410385 (LH).
Let us know what you discover!

 

The page is too big to fit on my scanner. For reference look at the 1972 Oldsmobile product manual featuring full line up of cars. The pics are on page 31.

 

That's a really interesting bit of information. I didn't know that there was such a thing as a w-29 hood. There is a W-29 package that does add louvers to the hood. I looked up the W-29 package in my 1972 SPECS book. Guess what? They never had chrome hood louvers, they were Black to match the 442 grill inserts! I think someone chromed them to look cool.

Cosmetically my hood looks exactly the same as yours (without the script). I was planning to put repro 442 grills on the front of my car because I think they look nicer. I don't plan to put the Oldsmobile emblem on the hood, since the W-29 pictures I have from the factory don't show them. Maybe it was for early 1972 to match the 1970 and 1971 models?? Apparently not all 442 W-29 cars had the emblems.

 

Hey,

Bringing back this thread to life.

Does any repro louvers? Mine are really shoddy...