Cooling Fan Finish?

[Stretch32]

I've been degreasing engine parts on my 1971 911T for a few days and was working on the cooling fan today and it appears that it may have been painted (maybe by the PO or his repair shop). I thought these fans were bare metal with the cad plated pulley assembly riveted in the middle. Is this correct or where they coated or painted in something to make them silver? I was thinking of having it soda blasted to clean it up but if paint is correct then I'll go that route. Thanks for any insight,

Stretch

PS- How does the alternator come out of it's housing? I've removed all the cap head screws but it looks like it's pretty well stuck and won't come out. Any thoughts on this one?

[edmayo]

What cap head screws are you referring to? If you're saying what I think you are those are the screws that hold the alternator halves together. Don't do that! You unbolt the clamp that holds the alternator to the case, tip the alt. rearward, and remove the nuts that are on the other end of the cap screws, (shove the cone forward) then remove the wires and lift the whole assembly out of the car. Now the alt. should just pull out of the housing, if its stuck you can give it some taps with a brass mallet to get it moving. Send the fan assembly to Mark Motsagen on this forum.

[Stretch32]

Ed,

Thanks again, yes I've obviously dorked this up. I'll put the screws back in and try and get it moving out of the housing by tapping on it. I don't know if the alternator has ever been removed from it's mounting bracket(?) hence the difficulty getting it to budge.

As far as fan refinishing is concerned, I was hoping to try a little DIY (mostly to save money) which is why I was wondering about the original finish. I'll look Mark up though, I've seen pictures of his work and it's really nice.

Stretch

[kentf14]

You can effectively recondition both your fan and the fan housing by either soda blasting (as you mentioned) or glass bead blasting. The only problem is that the center cad-plated pulley will turn silver. Since the fan and housing are both made of magnesium, you'll want to treat the bare metal with something like Gibbs Penetrating Oil to protect it. The oil will allow the magnesium to slowly turn dark grey over time.
Here is a photo of my fan after the above process.

Good luck.
Kent

PS, I have another fan that ill be sending to Mark for his treatment. His work is perfection.

[Merv]

Ditto. I thoroughly cleaned mine with Scotchbrite and then a couple of applications of Gibbs Brand Oil.

[Xavier PJB]

Mine was sandblasted, coated and paint, one week eago.

Before (even if looks ok and clean, lot of dents)


Now (needs a bit of "patina" now) (this si not so bright in real, maybe the camera flashlight make it so bright)

[StephenAcworth]

now that looks really good and can serve as the benchmark for mine!

Here is a photo of my fan after.

[preS]

now that looks really good and can serve as the benchmark for mine!

+1

This result will do for me.

Richard