Who restores fans for air-cooled 911 cars?

I doubt that anybody really knows exactly what an original fan looked like. Since metal will oxide, fade, tarnish, ect. even a nos fan will not look exactly as it did when it left the factory. Photos have their own set of problems as well. Mike

wow... it's true. the internet will debate anything.

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Originally Posted by davewadd

wow... it's true. the internet will debate anything.

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Like I said, these threads are amusing. :)

BTW, to get back to your original question: Mark Motshagen did my fan and I'd definitely recommend him. He is awesome to work with and stays in contact with you throughout the process to make sure you get what you want. I wanted my fan to be as "natural" as possible and showing off the "original" casting marks and imperfections.

Attachment 437595

We have a fairly good idea what original fans and housings look like. Not many left that don't need homogenizing. Picture of engine in sales brochure. And my fan bought and used for 35 years. Gordon

Gordon - Wow, that fan looks awesome! Now that's what I'd call "original". Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by John912

Sorry to disagree, but every time we do a ground-up restoration on one of our cars we are interpreting originality. And I don’t mean using parts from a later car on an earlier car, or introducing colors or finishes different from what the factory used. Anyone would be foolish to suggest that. But where do you get, for example, Fawn material to exactly match the color and texture produced by the original vendor over 50 years ago? Anything we get now is an interpretation of the original. Same applies the paint, undercoating, metal finishing, etc. We strive to get it as close as we can to the original and we should. But we have one big disadvantage. Whereas our cars came out of a factory using consistent set of workers, vendors and materials, we as independent restorers each have our techniques, resources, abilities, sources, etc. In the end, our finished product becomes our interpretation of what the factory did in one point in time 50+ years ago.

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Fully restored cars can be awesome. But as you said, it's an interpretation of originality. I'm just saying that I don't think of them as truly original. For example, a car with "original" paint isn't the same thing as a car that has been re-painted the original color.

Part of the problem on restoring fans is that they tend to get pit marks some are quite deep with corrosion. I did not want a restored fan with pit marks all over it. So that is where Marks process fills in the pit marks and with that process comes the "over restored" look. The NOS fans are smooth so are Marks restorations. If you want the careless factory fan look--smear oil and grease on it. I can just see the factory workers grabbing a new fan off the shelf dinging and scratching it--trying to put it on the car in less than 2 minutes or they might get fired for being slow. Chris

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Originally Posted by Frank Beck

Do you want them to look original or do you want them to look pretty?


Here we go again...

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I can do both. :D

As well as early etched, shown here on a proper 73 RS. With my plating too.

This fan is a light resto with sand cast Mag housing with no refinishing, as per customer request. G

Here is a NOS small SC fan that I got a bunch of in the 80's, that I installed an early fan hub on and matched with a RetroSport sand cast Mag housing. G