1966 A/C fan shroud

[Scott S.]

Good Morning, I am doing some research on an early B20 fan shroud. I do repair work on fiberglass shrouds. This shroud is in a 35,000 mile never hit CA coupe. The shroud does not appear to have the normal configuration for the shroud extension ring. There are two holes fro the bolts but no slot cutouts for the J-nuts? There does not appear to be any slots for the tabs on the extension ring? If you have any knowledge of early 1966 A/C car/s please let me know about this subject.
Thank you,
Scott Sinclair

[Joe R.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Scott,

Enclosed are some pics of fan shroud pieces that were offered by GM during the early 70's. You will find that they were offered in dark gray, medium gray and light gray as shown by the pics. You will also find that they have various holes or slots cut or not cut for whatever reasons I do not know.
Also, as you know it doesn't take a collision for the fan shroud to be destroyed. It just takes a bad water pump or bad fan clutch and about 1" of wobble!

JR

[Scott S.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Joe, Thank you. The last two look like the coloring and design. I will know better when it is out of the car.
Scott

[Peter L.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Scott - As usual Joe brings up some interesting points and I agree that there are numerous reasons why a fan shroud might have/could have been replaced. I have seen several situations where the fan shrouds on 67 C60 sb Corvettes are missing the Fan Ring and the V-grooves have not been made into slots as specified in UPC C60, SHEET B 2.6 in the 66 Corvette AIM I have. I'm not sure if the bolt holes or the clip cut-out were there, it's interesting that the V-groove were not cut out and that makes one question if the fan shroud might not have been replaced or either the folks at St. Louis were not paying attention to detail "sometimes" or something because it's not like C60 was a really low volume accessory. My 67 Base motor Corvette w/C60 has the ring and the V-grooves cut out.

So when you get to see this car, I suggest you look at the various fan shroud fasteners, etc. and determine if they are original or not as that might be a clue to if it had been replaced and not. Hopefully, you will be able to figure out the 40+ year old puzzle.

Good luck, Pete

[Scott S.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Pete, The shroud has original J-Nuts on it. My friend purchased the car from a longtime NCRS member. I will keep the thread updated.
Scott

[Ronald L.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Scott, the U nuts can be purchased and installed, NCRS member or not.

If the shroud has any of the light gray that Joe shows - think two decades later. That glass is SMC and was not produced before about 1980. You may also find General Tire logos on that stuff and it will be twice a heavy (Dense) as the real stuff.

The other pics Joe shows are service parts too, I have every configuration of these for 66 67 SB BB possible - used and NOS, pieces and full assemblies, real and service parts from up to the mid 80's and - out of an unmolested car - they were cut.

NOS not cut.

By the way did you get my email???

[Scott S.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Ron, Thank you for your reply. I did noy receive your email. The J/U nuts are unique. I would like to know where to purchase them? I am familiar with Fan Shrouds because I repair them with black resin and Mat. The A/C shrouds have slots and a cutout to hold the J nuts. This one just has a hole on each side for the extension ring.
The previous owner is a GM employee, who has written many Restorer articles and is a contributor to the current NCRS 1966 TIG & JM.
The big question is when did the factory start to add the extension ring to the 1966 (first fiberglass) shrouds?
Scott
1967 SB A/C Duntov owner

[Ronald L.]

Re: 1966 A/C fan shroud

Scott,

Maybe that GM employee can get the print. I'll look at the inside cover of the 66 JG tonight to see who that is. The print will give us a 'released for production' date as the earliest possible date that could have hit the system. If the data center does not have the print, maybe one of the repro folks looking at these threads could share the title block

The other place to look is the date of the AIM revision, 66 is especially helpful to this extend because these shrouds were new for the 66 model year. 67 changes could have started early or late as modifications to the current 66 parts release.

Clips can be found, not sure how many I have left, not cheap, and they are not reproduced. The tool to do this was 10k, so not a lot of takers... given two or three years of usage. I'll get you another note off...