polishing fan?

[Mike Kast]

When my motor was rebuilt the original plan was to powder coat the fan. My assumption is that money was spent elsewhere inside the motor and by the time it got to detailing the exterior of the motor the budget was so far gone that it didn't get done according to the original plan. Anyway, the fan was polished instead. When I bought the car the engine rebuild had about 7 or 8 thousand miles on it and the fan was tarnished again. I polished it a few times and it looked good enough for my liking. I used a couple of different polishes along the way and at some point recently the fan got looking really bad. Like snowflakes all over it that wouldn't come out. Maybe some kind of reaction caused by one of the polishes I used.
I bought a dremel tool polishing kit to see if I could polish it nice again. I did 2 fan blades and stopped. It looked good, but I wondered what caused it to go bad and if it happens again, I cant keep deep polishing it every month or I'll wear holes in the damn thing. I read the 101 projects chapter on wheel polishing and wondered if that would be a good method to apply to the fan. And if it is? How often would it need to be polished to keep it mirrored? Is there a product that can be applied to keep the time between polishes to a minimum?

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

You can polish that fan all you want, detail it daily, rub it to your heart's content, and it will never change the fact that the fan is made of magnesium and is full of pits and impurities from the casting process. You can coat it, powdercoat it, paint it, lick it, shoepolish it...and it will within several weeks look like...well, a piece of relatively rough magnesium casting. Whatever you coat it with will simply trap the impurities to make the snowflake patterns you see under whatever you have coated or polished it with. Magnesium Never Sleeps. Garage queens have painted or powdercoated fans. Look at any concours-prepared Porsche competition car, whether it's a 911 or a 917, and it will have a dull-grey fan. That's how Porsche God intended them to look.

Polishing a 911 fan is about as effective as polishing your shoelaces. The Garage Queens will arise in anger and post photos of gleaming painted fans, but they probably polish they swaybars, too.

Stephan

[Mike Kast]

I shouldn't be polishing my shoelaces? Or my sway bars?????
Magnesium huh? well, that answers a few questions... Thanks Steve, didn't mean t offend ya!

[1974carrera]

Originally posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson
......You can coat it, powdercoat it, paint it, lick it, shoepolish it...and it will within several weeks look like...well, a piece of relatively rough magnesium casting.....
Stephan

Formerly Steve is right about polishing the magnesium...it is impressive how quickly it will oxidize. On the other hand it is possible to paint Mg and have the coating last...it requires good surface preparation and quality paint. I just walked out to the shop and took this picture of the (uncleaned) fan on my engine:



It was painted in 1990 and is still unblemished...and the car/engine is definitely not a garage queen, i.e. that fan has worked hard for its living. Also in 1990, the fan housing was polished. It looked great then and obviously looks heavily oxidized now.

Here's a pic I took earlier this week of the fan on a '74 U.S. Carrera that won its class in the concours at the PCA Parade:



This car has less than 50K miles on it. The owner told me that he rubs WD-40 into the fan and housing every few months and then wipes it down so its dry. It looks even better in person and the surface showed no signs of pitting.

Depending on what you do with Mg surfaces, your mileage may vary.

[RickM]

That last fan looks as if were bead blasted. I like the look.

How come no one ever has the fan nut cap on?

[Dan Morton]

I had my fan and housing bead blasted and clear coated earlier this year and it looks great and not showing any signs of wear yet with over 2,000 miles on it so far.



-Dan

[masraum]

I recently bought a new fan and shroud. The fan came clear from the factory but the color is still raw Mg beneath the clear, and the shroud came with a matte black coating.

[1fastredsc]

I used to blast and paint 911 engine parts for a race/repair shop in jersey as they rebuilt the motors they were doing (and that included a lot of 911 fans). The ones i painted always got one primer coat and two krylon black paint coats (unless owner specified some other color). None of the ones i paint ever corroded or dulled out after a couple of months or so. But most of them did get dirty or had dry spots from water.

[David E. Clark]

Here's a polished one currently for sale on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&category=33600&item=2420707785



The price is already over $130.00 with about 2 1/2 days to go!

[RoninLB]

I think it's Souk, or KTL who did a nickel plating.. kinda dull chrome look...

that's the way for me.. fans/paint/road dust = NG.........Ron

[Mike Kast]

I may be insane!
But I like it!

[Mike Kast]