DarkFireGT

That's kickass man. Though, they could have used a bit more sealant. They're sitting a bit too far in. But it definitely says a lot about your product if Ford is buying it.

SilverHorse-----Racing

Yeah, the install wasn't too pretty close-up, but that's not a reflection of the product, it's just the individual who did it pushed too far in during the set-in procedure. I'm still just tickled that they wanted to try a set, hopefully they will look to offer them through their channels, allowing us to build our relationship with them for the 2010 models even more.

n8rfastback

have you ever thought about making the outer edges thicker so you dont need as much sealant to make them flush???

i see a lot of these that sit just below the surface of the surrounding metal.

ford4v429

way I did with mine (both times) was reuse the factory rubber 'setting blocks'...mine popped out intact when cutting the sealant(theres only 2 though), I just cut them into small pieces, stuck pieces down in 3 corners before applying the sealant. personally I think they had the right idea keeping the thickness as it would minimize 'shrinkage' distortion and stresses you'd get as thicker material cooled- plus if the sealant is too thin it would have more 'shear stress' concentration as the lexan expands/contracts a bit different than the steel its attached to...the thickness of the sealant is needed for the factory glass for the same reason- I'm sure otherwise Ford would glue them flat and save a few million bucks a year in extra sealant and setting blocks needed to assemble a few million cars Just my 2 cents...

05GT-O.C.D.

... or FoMoCo could just start buying a few thousand of these at a time and install them OEM since they look so darn good on the car.

Hey Tim, got the snow tires on for this weekend?

ford4v429

nah John- I was getting kinda bored with the mustang, so decided to step up to a really cool 98 windstar for a few months...oh yeah, its sweet

The ONLY good thing I can say about winter is it REALLY makes you appreciate the summertime

and I agree 100% Ford should offer these from the factory- I actually got a pic of mine on Ford Canada's 'customers cars' website with a blurb about the silverhorse louvers- I was suprised they put it up- guess they liked them too

SilverHorse-----Racing

n8r,

This is all meant just for facts - I appreciate the question, and it is not meant to be rude or anything, just factual.

For the record, the thickness is the same (+/-.005") of the factory glass in most places, even though we could've gone a lot thinner to save money (Lexan is way stronger than glass) we decided to keep it the same as OEM. To make it thicker, you've got a ton of problems that come into play, all of which are bad.

* The thicker it gets, the harder it is to maintain a transparent section like we have now.

* The thicker it gets, the higher the tonnage required to inject (we're currently a little over 250 tons of pressure to inject this part, the machine is only capable of 300 before we'd need a bigger press)

* Heating and cooling issues make it more difficult to manufacture as it gets thicker.

* Thicker = more material per part, and Lexan is not cheap (we buy it by the ton, and it still stupid money - the recent oil pinch has not helped this any)

* Thicker = color change because we have the color custom-mixed for this thickness. When it is thinner, the color becomes lighter, thicker = darker. So what we worked from in samples would have had to been adjusted again to maintain the color / tint we were after.

* Thicker = less room to work if you had to do a removal down the road someday, with an increased chance to damage the part / car.

* Thicker = increased chance that the part would stick out - definitely not what we wanted. Recessed can be okay (even the ones on my personal car are set in just like the original glass was), whereas sticking out just isn't acceptable in our book.

So yes, we did take it into consideration, but there were a multitude of reasons why we didn't. None of them were because we wanted people to have trouble with installs, all of them had to do with making the part as accurate as possible while keeping manufacturing constraints in mind that would have otherwise made the part much more costly or dificult to produce (than it already is), meaning that we would have had to charge more for them, which is something I really don't like to do.

HTH

SilverHorse-----Racing

Winter? What's that? It was 84 and sunny here today, we had to turn on the A/C it was so humid!



A little cooling off wouldn't be bad though - it is December after all... but of course it's Florida, so I doubt that will happen...

n8rfastback

thank you very much SHR, thats exactly the response i was looking for. i was just curious as to why they are made the way they are, and you answered it the best you could. no offense taken.

thanks.
nate

n8rfastback

heres a pic of mine after we put em in and taped them

SilverHorse-----Racing

Anyone looking for some light reading, there's a new install article in the March 2008 Mustang Enthusiast magazine - all color shots, and of course the full-page ad is up in the front with I think 5 customer photos in it this month!

2005mach1

nice read and great cars!

gremlin190

First off, I want to thank SHR for an awesome product. This is how the cart should have came.

Now the bad news.

My urethane was almost impossible to spread. We're talking two hands on the caulk gun, tip cut out as wide as possible hard. Is it suppose to be that hard? The date was not expired, and it was 70 degrees that day.

Anyway, I did a search and didn't get any real answers so here's the bad news.

My driver side has a small leak, and my passenger has a drip! They've been on for a week now due to me not having any time to look at them. Are my only two options below.

A: Use silcone and spread it on the inside to make a seal. I'm pretty confident I can make a seal, but don't know the downfalls here.

B: Complete removeal of the louver. Is this even possible? What would be the best practice to do so? Razor blade from the inside???

Thanks for a great product. Sorry about the problem, I didn't think it would be this hard? BTW I bought the blemished G9's. They are perfect enough for me

ford4v429

if you didnt use adhesion promoter, just push firmly from the inside out, they will come right out...I didnt use promoter and 4 months later they popped loose(totally my fault for not following directions) and while it took a bit of pushing, they popped out clean as a whistle.

if you used the promoter, hmm...I think I'd lean towards trying extending the tip (a piece of hardware store tubing?) and shoot it up in there hopefully sealing it. poping them out would be best, but I really think that would be challenging to do without scratching up the lexan. My 2 cents would be get some more urethane, try shooting it up in there- BTW the urethane at 70 ought to flow easy- like latex caulk or even a little thinner...I dont think that stuff should not have been that hard in the tube.

05GT-O.C.D.

Yeah, I'm guessing that either the wrong product was used, or it was a bad tube that maybe had a bad seal, etc.

69Mach1-409

I'm getting these next week!!!

gremlin190

Thanks guys,

I bought everything from SHR. I used the adhesive promotor and a thick layer of urethane. I'll try a forceful push and if they don't pop out, tubing and urethane it is.

ford4v429

have you asked Marcello? he may have had feedback on some other installs, I'm sure out of the hundreds (thousands?) of sets sold this aint the first time someones had a leak...by now might have some easy fixes


I would guess that with the promoter on there, the lexan would never come out without cutting the urethane- that stuff really bites into the plastic...without the promoter mine came off about like 'pulling duct tape' adhesion wise- with the promoter I think you'd bend/discolor the clearway before that bond would ever peel away...

SilverHorse-----Racing

Well, I've been off the forums for a few days, so I wasn't aware anything was going on since we're not getting notifications since the upgrade... but to answer the questions as best as I can here we go:

The urethane we buy in relatively small batches direct from 3M to insure we've got the freshest material available. Normally we only stock about a 1-2 month supply here, whcih barely registers on the radar of a company like 3M. But we do buy direct, so there is no middle-man where it can sit on a shelf for any lenght of time (same for all our 3M components). The adhesion promoter actually has a much more limited shelf life, and expires about 6 months after we purchase it normally. On both items, we rotate the stock to insure nothing sits around for too long. As to the pressure, it is a relatively thick urethane, and when it is cool I would imagine it gets worse. I've only done installs here in FL where it is always stupid hot, so I can't give an accurate assesment of the flow rate in the cold.

All I can say is if you ever have a problem with anything, you should let us know directly. Had you been having trouble, we could've overnighted some urethane out, or at least recommended where locally you could get what you need to get the job done (I know it's no fun when the glass is already out). On the leaks, it sounds like you were going for a "super" flush fit and didn't push the louvers in enough for the urethane to make a good seal. If you did push enough, and it just didn't bond, it might have just been a bad tube of sealant, I'm guessing it could happen, although it would be one of the first times I've ever heard about something like that happening (bad urethane).

Really though, at this point I'd be trying to remove them, remove the new urethane, and lay down a replacement bead and re-install. It's one of those things that yes, you could just add sealer at the point of leakage, but why? Get them out (carefully), re-seal, and have a perfect job that you'll be proud of down the road that will last for you, not one you're going to worry about every time you wash the car from here on out. That's just how I'd be looking to attack it.

In other news - the first sets of Vapor and Candy Apple already are out there, and Highland Green starts shipping Monday! And of course, our nemisis, black, is shipping out too in large quantities, so we've now got two painters involved in trying to keep up with orders and help everyone out. (And the black is coming out awesome!)

gremlin190

BAh, The beauty of the internet, can't show emotion.

I was not, nor am I upset. I also, wasn't trying to make it so you would have to defend the quality of your 3m products. I feel that my message was taken a little to close to heart. Not a bad thing, you're just showing pride in your product. I only posted here to see how other guys removed their louvers when they had problems. I wans't trying to bad mouth anyone, but get some ideas on what to do. I have very limited time to do an install unfortunately and was unable to call at the time of the install. I really think my tube of urethane was defective, but I'm not blaming that on anyone either. The date on the tube was fine, and how else was one to know that the tube may be bad. I think the lack of knowledge on my part didn't help my install either and I didn't want to bother you directly if the guys here could answer.

Now that I hope we are both straight, what would be the best practice to remove them if they don't push out?