Want to dress up my motor

[16jake]

I have the carbs of my 70 t being rebuilt and I would like to dress up the motor. I was going to start with painting the fan and the fan strap. Should these be powdercoated. Has anyone done them themselves. I was also going to have the throttle bar (piece between the two carbs connecting them) painted the same color. Then I figured why I was at it I would convert it to the K&N setup. Is this worth it. Any suggestions on what I can do and still have it be affordable. Thanks.

I read Waynes book on removing the fan but it didnt say anything about painting. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Randy Webb]

I would go with basic black and a string of pearls.

The K&N is fine for carbs but no real adv.

Defintiely use powdercoat over spray paint - esp. for the fan which gets a lot of grit. Get the throttle bar and plated.

You can drill some big R type holes in the support crossbar and powdercoat silver.

There is a whole thread on "purty engines" somewhere on the BBS.

[16jake]

Polish the throttle bar? Do most people prefer the stock setup or the K&N?

[16jake]

Ok the car is signal yellow. Should I try to match the fan with the color of the car or go red or something?

[Tim Walsh]

There is a guy here on the board that makes new shrouds anyway you want them. THey're under $200 and they really make your engine bay stand out.

Might be a little pricey but if your shroud is like mine it might be worth it.

[16jake]

who?

[Tim Walsh]

series900

see this post
fan shroud question

I have a friend who's got one of his shrouds and the only way I could tell a factory part from the new one was the age, the new one's SOOO much nicer

[project 911]

I've had pretty good luck with engine paint on steel and fiberglass parts like the fan strap, shroud, tins, etc. I went with red and black with polished fan and valve covers. The polished parts stay nice for about a day... I've gone to a black wrinkle finish on the valve covers and inside the fan hub and it seems to be holding up fine.

70T engine in a 71T.

[copper]

Steve B

Please tell me how you managed to get such a fantastic shine on your fan. I've been looking at several options. (Autosol etc.)


Jim

[project 911]

Hi Jim,

My fan was really coroded when I got it, so first I sand blasted it and painted it red with engine paint, but the corosion came right back through the paint very quickly.

There was lots of pitting, so I actually had to use a file to smooth the whole thing out (hopefully you won't have to do this). After that I wet sanded by hand down to about a 600 grit (even finer would be better), then I buffed it with a bench grinder with firm cotton buffs using tripoli, then rouge. You need a buffing wheel that is a large enough diameter to reach the sides of the hub between the fins.

I found that rubbing WD40 into it helped keep it nice for a while, but it doesn't last long. Now I just clean it with Mother's polish, or 0000 steel wool soaked in WD40. It leaves a little more of a satin finish, but not bad. I haven't tried any kind of clear-coat.

Sure looks pretty when it is first done...



Now it is more of a satin look. This is before cleaning, so it will shine up a little better than this pic shows.

[project 911]

Same deal on the valve covers-

[copper]

Well done.

It truly is a sight to behold.

Of only there was some way to retain that mirror shine...

Jim

[project 911]

Thanks Jim,

My weather and location doesn't help. Fog, rain, snow... Even in the garage it all gets wet. I guess if I would have polished it more often, it may have stayed better, longer.