'72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

[Douglas M.]

base motor 350 if that makes a difference. Shroud is fiberglas or some sort of palstic.

There is currently some matte black paint flaking off that some PO applied.

Any suggestions of what can be done to make the shroud look original and new, short of replacing it?

I will have the entire shroud out of the car in a week or two for radiator recore, so i would like to get that area of the car all cleaned up. I already have new radiator seals,and will get the fan and fan clutch all up to snuff..

As a side note, I received the dealer shipping data on my car a few day ago. Thanks to a person on another forum, he pointed me to a post on yet a third forum that indicates my zone 39, dealer 65 delivered car , was originally sold less than 6 miles from where it lives now.

Doug

[Douglas M.]

Re: '72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

BTW, any tips of shroud removal? Someone told me they were a real pain to get out, but he didn't elaborate.

Thanks,
Doug

[Edward J.]

Re: '72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

Doug, I think the shop manuel calls out for un-bolting the upper r/s control arm, But I did it on my 72 air car without control arm removel, What I did was remove the radiator first and slide upwards( two people would help, its heavy) and then unbolted lower shroud bolts, the fan and water pump pulley and then remove lower crank pulley, and rotated shroud slightly , and out the pass. side, It did take a little flexing but was able to remove.

As for the paint on shroud use some paint remover and then steel wool. ( the finest grade )

[Patrick H.]

Re: '72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

I used paint stripper (water washable is just plain easier to use) and mine turned out fine. You can use the steel wool to "scrape off" the paint that needs a little extra persuasion.

Patrick

[Jim T.]

Re: '72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

Douglas my 1970 with air conditioning has a big radiator and fan shroud most likely the same as yours.
As original owner more than once I have unbolted the upper control arm and using a jack placed under the lower control arm to relieve the tension on the upper arm. I move the upper control arm into the wheel well and remove the fan shroud.
Wrap the alignment shims in some tape and mark which bolt they fit on.
I also remove the rear upper arm bolt from the frame. The bolts have a sereated edge that retains them in the frame.
After I remove the shroud I knock out the forward upper control arm bolt and reinstall them after installing the shroud and having the control arm in place. When the nuts are tightened they will pull the blots into the frame.
It is really not a lot of work, I have done it more than a couple of times.
The drivers side upper control arm removal will not give the same results.

[Douglas M.]

Re: '72 fan shroud resto/refresh?

Thank you, that worked out rather well.

Since my car has an Auto trans (trans cooler lines), you can't just pull the radiator and then lift the shroud out, as the lower trans cooler line can't be accessed without pulling teh shroud

Thanks,
Doug

As original owner more than once I have unbolted the upper control arm and using a jack placed under the lower control arm to relieve the tension on the upper arm. I move the upper control arm into the wheel well and remove the fan shroud.
Wrap the alignment shims in some tape and mark which bolt they fit on.
I also remove the rear upper arm bolt from the frame. The bolts have a sereated edge that retains them in the frame.
After I remove the shroud I knock out the forward upper control arm bolt and reinstall them after installing the shroud and having the control arm in place. When the nuts are tightened they will pull the blots into the frame.
It is really not a lot of work, I have done it more than a couple of times.
The drivers side upper control arm removal will not give the same results.