December 28, 2018

In my ever growing desire to modify my 2016 Camaro RS, an interesting aesthetic mod that I came to love is the rear window louver. They look awesome on the original Camaro, they look good on the 6th Gen Camaro, heck, they even look good on Mustangs.

Through my digging around online, I decided that the American Authority option is the best looking of the available options, and it was the most affordable. It has a simple mounting system, has great reviews from the 6th Gen community, and it’s pretty easy to find a discount code to use on their site. For $139 before a 5% discount (unpainted version), it was worth a shot.

Up to this point, I have bought a number of things from American Authority, and have never had any issues with them or their products. They ship quick, and have good customer service if it is needed. This purchase was no exception. It shipped quickly, and within a weeks time, I had the louvers at my door.

I didn’t paint it, as I am going for that matte black theme on my car, so the unpainted version looked great. However, I noticed that it seemed as though the top line of the louver (that would follow the top of the window/roofline) was a bit off. It looked warped, and the middle section of the top louver was out of plane with the rest of the louver slats. No matter, I’m sure everything will align itself upon installation.

Not quite.

I cleaned the rear window, followed the steps, it really isn’t rocket surgery. The louver looked awesome on my window, but there was a bit of an issue.

I can’t find any pictures of the original install, but can you see the gap between the middle mount and the little mounting pin? The original gap was about twice what you see in this picture. Remember, that the mounting system for this louver is double stick tape with some metal pads with a small screw thread on it. That is really all you need for a louver system, but it also means that the only thing holding your louver to your car is double stick tape. Nine pads of double stick tape, to be exact, which again, is fine for this. But, the amount of bend that is in the upper section of the louver means that the top pads, especially the middle one, will always be experiencing an upward force on it.

Over time, that pad fails, and pulls up, resulting in best case, a slightly rattle-y louver, or worst case (and probably not all that likely), a louver flying off while doing 9…cough…I mean, the speed limit, on the highway. Neither are ideal. As I feared, after a day or so of being installed, the top middle pad would pop off, and the top outer two pads would begin to peel. Some people may be thinking, well, the stock adhesive may be crap, get some better quality stuff… I did. I swapped out the stock stuff with some awesome 3M outdoor rated, 50lb test double stick tape. Made sure the surfaces were clean, let the adheasive cure before installing the louver, and still, after a day or so, it would being to peel. Sometimes it would peel from the window, sometimes from the pad, but it was consistent.

How the louver was warped not only raised the middle of the top section too much, but it also had a bit of a twist in the top louver slat, so the top slat was more so facing down towards the spoiler, vs straight back. This puts a weird upward force on the mounting pad, as well as a slight torque on the mounting pad, since you have to twist the top slat a bit to get it to go onto the mount where it should be. The adhesive could withstand an upwards force normal to the window surface, but the way the twist was, it was essentially peeling the pad off, little by little. You wouldn’t pull the pads straight up to remove them, you would peel from the edge, and that is basically what was happening all the time to the top mounting pads.

Me being the shadetree mechanic/ amateur-pro engineer that I am, I figure I can try to make it work. Despite running the tech support for a well know 3D Printer manufacturer for 2 years, I hate contacting companies or support. I figure, the thing is ABS plastic, and one section is warped, so if I heat it up and warp it back, maybe it will work…

I’ll spare you the images, but needless to say, I am not very patient, and things didn’t work out as I wanted. Heat up some plastic with a lighter, bend it way too much, then try to bend it back and make it look like nothing happened. That will give you a good idea of what this louver now looks like. But, the actually mission of un-warping the louver was mostly successful, and I was able to mount it without any pads peeling up for about a week before I removed it again.

A few hours after ugly-ing up the louver, I typed up a kind but concerned email to the AA support line. At this point, I had screwed up the louver beyond repair, that is on me, but I wanted to see if there was anything I was doing wrong, or if there was anything I could do in the future. AA was quick to respond after a day or two, and offered to send me a replacement louver, free of charge, no questions asked. Awesome. That kind of service is why I still buy from them to this day.

When I received the new louver, it looked to have the same bend/warp, just to a lesser degree. I went through the same process as before, and while it is a little better, the top middle pad still peeled within a few days. I did a few more modifications to the new louver, mainly cutting off the curved edge around the majority of the louver, widening some mounting holes, and even making a tapered spacer to try to allow me to secure to the top mount without having to put so much of a twist in the louver.

These efforts actually mostly worked, though, this is what the top of the louver looks like when installed.

Those big gaps are fairly unsightly. Those curved leading edges are about half the size of what they would be stock, but the gaps and bend is still obvious stock. As you can see, it looks like the middle mount is pulling the louver down, while the whole louver wants to go up.

While this modified but better looking louver does work a lot better, after a week of being installed, daily driving to work, and whatever weather Central Florida decides to throw at me, the middle pad was about half pulled up off the window, with the two outer top mounts beginning to peel. :(

So, currently this is where I am at. I uninstalled the louver, the mounts are still on my car, and I do not know if this thing will really work out for me in the long run. It looks good on the car. It is a beautiful design for a louver. The overall quality is great, except for that one top louver slat. I have not seen anyone else with this issue, but, in a YouTube video by Hammerdown Motorsports, from 6:00 to 6:10, you can clearly see that his louver also has a pretty decent bend in it along the top edge. I don’t know if he has had an issues, but it looks as though his top slat doesn’t have any twist to it. At least I know these louvers are made with a bit of bend along the top edge.

So in conclusion, I would still recommend these louvers. There are enough happy users out there to overrule anything I say in a blog. They look awesome, and I don’t have anything bad to say other than the issues I have been having. Just keep these things in mind. I plan on trying some other mods, maybe a different adhesive, something, and when I do, I will update this blog with some info.

American Authority Rear Window Louvers | Beautiful Design, With A Problem

Additional Pictures