Let's make some new aftermarket aluminum fan shrouds....

[skinnerd]

Interesting and there must obviously a need for these....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMyjV59GITQ

[chris_seven]

There are several suppliers of Aluminium Fan Housings for later cars 74 onwards at around $550 each and there are 74-83 Magnesium housings also available at around $750.

The Pattern Equipment cost for making these housings would be a minimum of $5000 including core boxes so how many housing would have to be made to obtain a payback?

Aluminium Castings are likely to cost between $70 and $100 each depending on volume and machining a little more so I can see unit production cost being between $350 and $400 per unit.

By the time it has all been modelled, prototyped and machining fixtures made the investment could easily be $10 000 so you would need to sell around 75 housings at the same price as those that are already being made.

It is possible that they could be produced in China for a better price but then everyone will probably complain about quality. The could be 'spin cast' and the finish would be excellent.

We currently cast Aluminium clamps for bar fittings in a Chinese foundry at about 1/4 of the EU price.

I am surprised to see that Mittelmotor have chosen to use a 'Green Sand' casting technique.

I would prefer to use an 'Air Set' method and this would be more likely to produce a better surface finish and more consistent castings. If the board used were 'framed' correctly the same pattern equipment could also be used to make the housing in AZ91 Magnesium with the basic casting cost being around twice the price of Aluminium.

It may be possible to 3-D print these housings in smaller quantities but I an imagine unit cost would be vey high and won't reduce for a few years.

I recently had a small metal housing for an illuminated display 3-D printed and it cost about $3500 (just the printing as we already had the model)

[trdking]

Fascinating video however. Love watching how things are made

[skinnerd]

Mittelmotor's ad on Ebay.de (Germany)...

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Porsche-911-R...8AAOSw44BYcQBw