theiceman

I posted a mesage some time ago about reconditioning my engine fan. Like most of the pictures I have seen of your cars they were like mine , the clear coat is pealed and it generally looked awful . After asking you guys the response I got was don't paint it as a rule. because the fan is basically a sandblaster and whatever colour I paint it it will eventually come off and look even worse. Half painted half not. I decided to try to refinish it myself.
1. used a dremmel with a brass brush to remove rest of clear coat. ( scratched it up a little ) I then used 2000 grit sandpaper and wet sanded all the blades while watching the hocke game .. we lost anyway. so it was productive at least. I then used mothers mag alluminum polish to bring back some of the shine. The job isn't perfect but looks a lot better than it did. I am off to the body shop this week to see if they can clear coat it for me, I figure if I get 5 years out of it I will be happy. I have atatched a pic of the work so far.

ice

AJ88CAB

Nice work iceman! If you are going to have it powder coated (or regular paint) make sure the paint shop pre-cooks it before painting. Also, ask for a thin coating and mask the edges of the blades as well as the mating surfaces where it mounts up to the alternator. Ask me how I know!
Andrew

Cabriolet Mike

That looks great! I would have it clear anodized instead of powdercoating.

Mike

theiceman

Actually I was thinking of just having it clear coated at an auto refinishing shop like most 2 step auto refinishing systems. I wouldn't have it painted after all this work.

AJ88CAB

Iceman,

Clearcoat was all that ever entered my mind, I should have been more specific

Andrew

recordmanv

That's the best looking fan I have ever seen. I am very jealous! I painted mine red, (matched the redish SC air ducting cover) don't regert it, but man, your fan looks chromed! Nice job. How many hours did it take you to polish?

theiceman

Thanks guys, it actually didn't take long at all, and rememberyou don't see all the defects in the picture. but it took about 3 hours total from being off the car.

about one hour with the dremmel taking of the old laquer.
about 1 hour wet sanding
about 1 hour or maybe more with the polish.

I could not get off ALL the old stuff but i pretty well got off everything that would be visible.

The next part of the equation is the housing thing. Just a big piece of junky looking aluminum. it's tarnished, half black, just plain ugly, and I don't think I will be able to get it clean. I was thinking of just having this sprayed black or charcoal grey, and then putting my fan in . Anybody have any other thoughts ? I can post a picture of that too but it is UGLY ...
I can't leave it .. and if I try to clean the inside area where the fan is I will get stuck trying to clean the whole thing.

hmm what to do ... ....what did you guys do ?

imcarthur

ice

That looks great. Here's some interesting reading for you. Pelican Thread

Ian

wholberg

Iceman,

That looks really great.

theiceman

Ian
That was good reading. Looks like nothing will be permanent so maybe just a polyurathane clearcoat for me . This is by no means a concours car or even a garage queen. Thanks for the links.

That housing looks a little more challenging however and I may take it somewhere to be cleaned up.

I'll keep you guys informed.

theiceman

Well here is my update -
I visited a few body shops around - granted I don't have the number of places you guys have living here in Canada but pretty well no body would touch it . They all said a clear coat would delaminate and the only way to get it to stick would be to sandblast it and pretreat it and pre bake...blah blah blah .so I went to see the powdercoating guy and it was all very true but this is not a concourse car and all I wanted to do was clean it up a little. plus they wanted over 200.00 for the fan alone . I could buy a fan for that off ebay !! . So I think I'll just go buy a can of acrylic clear coat and spray it on. If it delaminates or turns milky so what . It can't possibly look worse than it did ! ..

So I guess I'll put it all back together ..

redidrum

I'd leave it alone and install it. Looks good now. Most clear coat in a heat environment blows off anyway. I am a fan of 2000 wet sanding too. Use some Never Dull Brass cleaner on it. Great Job! Ron

theiceman

Well I will put it back together and post a new pic every 6 months or so and do a " study"

Thanks guys ..

wholberg

I have a friend with a SC who polished his fan like that. You can keep the visible portion looking great by hitting it with Mothers mag polish once a month or so. He spends 30 or 40 minutes once a month on it and it always looks great, at least the side you can see does.

theiceman

Thanks that is great news, that is exactly the product I am using and the info I am looking for. I was just worried that it would REALLY start to corrode without something on it . I don't drive my car in winter.

THanks