porsche fan, polished or painted, what do you prefer?

[hot66]

kind of a fun question / poll

My porsche fan shroud is to be painted black to match my car. Now which of these do you think will look best with the colour coded shroud?

1. Fan also painted black to match, polished alternator housing, chromed retaining strap, chromed pulley

2. Fan fully polished with painted black alternator housing, black retaining strap & chromed or painted balck pulley?

3. Fan painted silver, alternator housing black & all other bits gold zinc plated as stock

which do you think would look best :D

[darren]

TOO many options sir :D

Polished fan sounds nice, but cleaning it ?:rolleyes:

darren

[kdanie]

I agree with Darren, a polished fan would be too much work to keep looking good (you should be driving it!!). I like simple things, my fan is painted metallic gray, the ring is painted silver, the strap is stainless. I like to drive, not polish stuff!
ken

[Supa Ninja]

I'm feeling option number 3. Sounds very clean.

[zen]

paint it all black:D

[SuperRSi]

I powdercoated both the fan (red) and the shroud (silver) and when I got them back I found out the clearance for the fan to shroud was less than the buildup of the powdercoat. Now I have a red fan and a bare aluminum shroud. But I sure won't spend the time to polish it!

Randy

[hot66]

I think I'm going to paint the fan & polish the alternator housing :)

I notice some of you have stainless steel straps, where did you get these from?

[crewcab1964]

I probably wouldn't paint the fan, unless I was going to go through the extra effort to have it balanced again. Even though may look nice, you maybe inducing another problem. The thickness of the paint will add some sort of weight variance causing it to spin off balance and vibrate. What could possibly happen is premature bearing wear and cracking of the fan blade. Worse yet, you could have catastrophic failure of the fan and a blade shoot out of your engine lid.

[kdanie]

My stainless strap came with the shroud kit from CIP, it's a cheap copy of the BAS shroud.
I don't think paint on the fan would be much of a problem if it is applied evenly. If someone is concerned with balance but still want it colored you can always have it anodized. (Hmmmm.....maybe I WILL strip the paint and have it color anodized...sounds trick) I will be turning my fan at crankshaft speed so it's not as fast as stock anyway. I just hope it's fast enough to keep the alternator charging with the lights on at idle.
ken

[Alex]

Everthing polished.
I will clean the car ofthen anyways.....I might as well clean the aluminum too.

Alex

[56OVALI]

Can the fan and ring be chrome plated? :confused:

Or is polishing the only way to go? How do you polish your fan? :confused:

I know they can chrome plate aluminum now, I had a few small pieces on my convertible done

[Massive Type IV]

The ring and fan on the porsche Genuine fans are magnesuima and cannot be chromed...I have my polished fans coated with clear powdercoat, never polish it again.

[lightning bug]

Don't forget...... chrome is heavy. You might be losing some efficiency if you chrome the fan.

[Martice]

polish it all. :)

Martin

[Massive Type IV]

I just did something for the first time that worked awesome..

We had a polished fan powdercoated candy apple blue....it looks like anodized aluminum, very trick...no more polishing at all, its going on Crimson Axes engine..........

[Martice]

Its a good idea it should look really good.
But, I mean when a porsche fan is used it looks good anyway :) so its just up to everyones taste, as long as what you do does not harm the fans "performances".

Martin

[SPEEDY57TUB]

I like Jakes suggestion regarding the clear powder-coating. As fo myself, I painted my fan with a high-temp silver automotive engine paint and followed it up with a automotive engine clear coat. It looks stock and like a freshly casted part. The silver tends to rub off and that is why I clear coated it. I have two powdercoated ring/alt-shrouds and two plain shrouds. I usually try to go with the "factory" look but sometimes you have to go with the engine bay theme. I usually have the pulley and straps painted or anodized. You can also go with stainless straps. I also sometimes glass-bead blast the aluminum, magnesium, or Al-Mag parts. The resulting finish is somewhat factory. One positive thing :)about this last option is that bead-blasting sometimes "may" slightly (very slightly, if any) peen the surface and thus reducing the tendency of micro-fractures from propagating into larger cracks. Bead-blasting will remove any surface oxidation or films that are hiding some bad surface corrosion actions. After you bead-blast, protect with a clear coat. Polishing is great but "a pain in the you know what" to achieve and maintain. Polishing also may, to a greater extent, reduce surface micro-fractures that may develop under certain conditions. I make my own Type 1 fiberglass shrouds and relative mounting parts out of Aluminum-Magnesium. Anyhow, Good luck!! Make sure you do all you can "to minimize" overcooling and fan choking. You have to make the engine compatible to the fan setup's capacities. If you dont, you'll hate your setup :doh: and be disappointed :crying: !!! Check different forums and look at my and other's suggestions regarding what you can do to make the setup work as best as possible.

[Massive Type IV]

I have just experimented with having our powder coater do a candy apple blue over a polished fan...IT LOOKS AWESOME, almost like it is anodized....
I'll be offering teh service on my engines, or you can send me your fan.....check my forum and site for more details as they come available,