3.2 Fan restoration

[35SIXXX]

Guys, I’m wanting to remove the fan and on my new 3.2 and clean it up. Being such a dominant part of the engine bay visually, I thought it’d be a good little job to start learning about the car. 
Just wanted to know if that’s as easy as it looks? Is it simply a matter of removing the centre nut that holds the pulleys, as well as the bolts that hold the frame in place on the outside?

Once removed, I was thinking about having the parts media blasted and then ceramic coated. Any issues with this?

Is there anything I should look out for while doing this? Any do’s or dont’s?

Any advise would be appreciated. 
 

Thanks. 

[9er]

Pretty easy job as described, obviously fan is attached to the alternator, so it may be a good time to have a good look at that while your in there, both the fan (excluding the pulley hub section) and housing are magnesium and would respond nicely to vapour blast, to make them look really schmick you can ceramic coat them and get the pulley hub section reanodised although that may be a step too far as it requires drilling out the rivets securing it to the fan.

 

[35SIXXX]

On 25/04/2020 at 13:57, 9er said:

Pretty easy job as described, obviously fan is attached to the alternator, so it may be a good time to have a good look at that while your in there, both the fan (excluding the pulley hub section) and housing are magnesium and would respond nicely to vapour blast, to make them look really schmick you can ceramic coat them and get the pulley hub section reanodised although that may be a step too far as it requires drilling out the rivets securing it to the fan.

 

Thanks 9er, I appreciate the feedback. I'm cool with drilling out some rivets. You then rivet it back together? Or use nuts and bolts? You don’t know of any vapour blasters in Melbourne do you?

cheers. 

[9er]

Re riveting would be the gold standard, but it's not easy finding the correct size, or a jig to set them correctly.

We ended up with a screw and lock nut arrangement on mine.

I think vapour blast is becoming a bit of a cottage industry, shouldn't be to hard to find one local to you

 

[sus911]

Very late on this I know but in case you haven't progressed I can offer some solutions.

Autohaus Hamiltons have a vapour blasting setup, and the proper riveting tool & rivets for a factory reattachment of the pulley.

Then send out the pulley (and any other CAD plated hardware) to be refinished.

Then select your preferred Ceracote applicator.

After vapour blasting and depending on the the condition of your fan & shroud, you may have to do some patching & fine sanding with JB Weld.