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Just one simple idea:
go to a junkyard and check out some old cars.
The Fifties and Sixties classic cars had very nice side trim and for instance the Cadillacs of 59 and 60 have some very nice and sleak trim at the lower front fender.
Just pick up some of these and add them to the gill area by turning them 180°!!!
Is this an idea or not?
I post a pic of my 59 Caddy below, so you can better imagine what I´m thinking of!
I agree with you that it is very boring looking. I have considered adding the 68-69 "gills" to my 73. I need to play around with photoshop or something to see how it would look. I think it would be interesting to dress it up a little.
Its crude looking but that ias something close to what I am looking for in chrome. This is a simple drawing done in paintshop, notice the grey fins on the vents?
You can see the difference between it and my sig file, i think.
Yeah the gills would be nice, but I am not up for doing any fiberglass work, that was why I was thinking os something chrome and attaches to the existing vent to add a lil life to the void there.
If you look at an ecklers catalog they have these little fins that clip on the louvers of the early C4s. you could order a set of those i think you get like nine of them or something (you prob wouldn't use that many) You could paint them to look like chrome or something, then they are easily removed too. just a suggestion
Yep, this is what I thought of first, but those fins are way to small to cover the longer C3 sides. I guess this looks puny then?!?!
Therefore I came up with the junkyard solution for the sides.
Those Cadillac (or whatever) sidetrim is longer and it can be shortened by cutting. Vice versa is more difficult (I guess :D )
Now don't kill me here, BUT.... In the c5 threads, someone had pics of a c5 with neon in the c5 gills.... and it looked pretty neat at night. I wasn't sure if that was too ricey for a c3, it works well on the c5. ;)
Are the gills actually designed to do something, like extract heat from the engine compartment @ speed due to a low (or high) pressure area above the gills?
Yep, in 68 / 69 and in 73 - 82 they were designed to pass the heat from the engine compartment to the outside.
70 - 72 was closed. So this years heat had to find other ways to get out of the engine bay..... :jester