C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

[Glenn Ochs]

I have conflicting information regarding the finish on the 1967 427 fan shroud. The NCRS judging guide says "painted semi-gloss black" and the M.F. Dobbins fact book says "natural unpainted". I tend to go with NCRS on these issues but I would like an opinion. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[Kieran A.]

Re: C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

Glenn,I have a L-71 roadster that has mostly original paint. I plan to bring the car to the national meet at Hershey in July for flight judging. The shroud on the car is sort of a mixed bag;the outer surface is mostly painted black,almost as if done as part of a blackout of the engine compartment. The inner surface is mostly natural,with the inspection stickers still intact and readable. Seems that when the shroud was painted,there was not a lot of emphasis on complete coverage as only the easily visible surfaces got a good coating of color.Hope this helps,regards,Kieran #11373

[Mike M.]

Re: C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

i agree with kieran but the judges deducted for unpainted inner surface on a 66 425hp i duntovd several years ago.Mike

[Wayne W.]

Re: C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

I have always considered them to be unpainted. It is a fact that they were not a part of the blackout proceedure, unless there was some touch up proceedure somewhere farther down the assembly line. Then if they were painted it would have been a process of the parts manufacture. The shoroud was installed on the chassis before body drop and was not a part of the body assembly process.

[Everett Ogilvie]

Re: C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

The original shroud on my Bowtie L72 has black paint on it inside and out (this is a late '66 car, and I believe the shroud is the same as the L71). The paint only remains in patches, which makes it obvious that it is paint - you can clearly see the original glass finish where it has come off. There still remains about 80% paint coverage on the shroud. I agree with Wayne's point about paint - if originals were painted, the paint was likely done by the shroud manufacturer.

I just ordered a reproduction shroud for another car and wanted to make sure I finished it similarly to originals. The repro had very rough edges which irritated your skin just to touch it. I had to sand all edges to make them smooth, and then lightly and unevenly coated it with paint. It looks pretty close to the the Bowtie shroud now. If the original manufacturer did not smooth up the edges, they would have been extremely rough. They probably had to put on some paint after smoothing up the edges.

[Wayne W.]

Re: C2- 1967 L71 fan shroud finish

Everett, If you look closely you will see that the edges of the original were actually cast in the mold where the repro has a ground off edge. That is the reason that it is smoother. It had a much finer flashing on the edge.