Fan blades, painted or natural?

TylerW

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Hey guys:
I am restoring the engine accessories for my '66 300, and have a question about the fan. My 7-blade clutch-style fan dated J65 does not have any evidence of paint on the blades. The hub has black paint on it, but the rivets holding the blades to the hub are natural on both sides.

So, were the blades black and ALL of it flaked away, or were they actually natural when new?

Thanks.
 
My '66, '67, and '70 Chrysler 383s all have clutch fan colorations as you describe. Natural aluminum blades riveted to a black painted hub. For a non-clutch fixed-blade fan, I'd suspect that one would be all black, the same satiny black used on the air cleaner and engine brackets. NOT a hard, shiny black as so many tend to use, which is incorrect on Mopars and GMs.

ONE thing about doing restorations, restore the car as you find it, not specifically to some other standard(s). If, for example, when you car was built, a "spot shortage" in fan blades might have happened. Not desiring to stop the assembly line, a substitution of another blade spec might have happened. If the vehicle had some overheating issue during warranty, then warranty would pay to fix it with the correct fan blade. Otherwise, things stayed "as assembled".

The other thing is that although there was a build manual for each type of car, one plant/shift might have done all of the markings, but another plant and/or shift might have not been as diligent in doing them, or moreso, in comparison. Although similar to C-bodies, A/B/E-bodies might have had different spec items on them, even for similar engines and such.

Carefully clean and photographically document the pre-cleaned and cleaned conditions. Noting paint daubs, inspection marks, or other color stripes which were important on the assembly line. Easier to see a color marking rather than to look at a printed tag. Quicker, too. Every thing you might need to reproduce these markings and daubs should be available from restoration people as Roger Gibson or similar. Chrysler had their own unique way of building vehicles, as did Ford and GM. Doing it "accurate" might not make it look as nice as a similar Ford or GM, especially as so many of those cars have been "over-restored" rather than accurately restored, by observation.

There can also be some grease pencil markings under the hood. On the '70 SuperBird 440 I helped with, there was a black marking on the lh valve cover. It was reproduced by another guy in the group re-doing it "free hand". Also some other marks on the core support or similar, for cooland "freeze" proetection.

Respectfully,
CBODY67
 
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I guess 66 is different, here is my 69
2013-11-17_015.jpg


2014-02-11_020.jpg



Alan
 
When I was a teen, a friend of my dad's put the fan through the hood of his 69 Camaro at the drag strip when it came apart
 
I was about 30 feet off the starting line when the brand new flex fan on a friend's big block Nova. The blade went up through both the inner layer and the outside of the hood. Another friend fixed it at his body shop, but kept saying "This should be replaced rather than fixed".

Fast forward 40 years... yea, 40 years... Another friend was doing a restoration on a Nova and mentioned to me about the hood having a fan blade go up through the hood sometime back in its race car life. I described the car... I hadn't seen it for at least 35 years... and it was the same one. He said "They should have replaced the hood rather than fix it".

Another local guy had a flex fan come apart while timing his car. Killed him on the spot.
 
Stuff like that that keeps me checking on things regularly. Even and esp seemingly mundane things.
 
This broken fan from that point made me look twice at every used part especially those that were repaired or rusty.

When working on my car are watching someone else I always stay clear of the fan alignment plane, I would never use a fan that had ANY repair work, twisted blade, welding, etc.


Alan
 
Another local guy had a flex fan come apart while timing his car. Killed him on the spot.
I have heard of quite a few of these incidents one in the last couple months, guy got the fan blade to the neck.

This broken fan from that point made me look twice at every used part especially those that were repaired or rusty.

When working on my car are watching someone else I always stay clear of the fan alignment plane, I would never use a fan that had ANY repair work, twisted blade, welding, etc.


Alan
This is some great advice we all should follow
 
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