>Your "before" pictures sure are scary. We don't think of yours as a resto,
>really--we think of it as a fabrication.
>
>  First I had a barndoor.
>  Then I had a barndoor and a sandblaster.
>  Now I have a sandblaster and a...nub!

ROFLMAO.  LOTFCMEO*. You don't know the truth you speak.

>I have a question. The more prosaic barndoors have louvers up top as well
>as below. But yours (and pickups, I guess) have no upper louvers, in your
>case because you have windows there. So what do the upper louvers do in the
>barndoors that have them? Are they snorkeled to the engine compartment like
>bays? Are they for interior venting?

Only panels have the upper vents.

Barndoor panels have the upper vents, which are for venting the cargo area,
although  I've seen pix of early ones that did not.

Later walk-thru panels did not have the vents up above, which is how you can
spot them right off.  Non-walk-thru panels will have the vents.

You'll even see campers with the vents, because they were created from panels.

I've never heard of a walk-thru barndoor.

Barndoor engine vents are 3-4" wider than norrmal, and they have one fewer
vent.  The first ones ('49/early '50) had vertical vents instead of
horizontal.  Starting in the early 60', the vents were popped inward instead
of outward.

Another interesting item is the rain gutter on early barndoors only went 3/4
of the way back, not all the way to the end.

Thanks for letting me _vent_...

*(laying on the floor crying my eyes out)

Thom Fitzpatrick
thom@calweb.com - http://www.calweb.com/~thom
Keeper of the Barndoor Bus Web Page: http://www.calweb.com/~thom/barndoor.html