67 Small Block Fan Shroud

[Kirk M.]

What is the correct color for a 67 SB fan shroud. Mine is gray with the white fibers through it, but I was just reading something that suggested that is a service replacement and the original should be black. Is that correct?

Kirk

[Scott S.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

What is the correct color for a 67 SB fan shroud. Mine is gray with the white fibers through it, but I was just reading something that suggested that is a service replacement and the original should be black. Is that correct?

Kirk

Kirk,

I believe the DARK GRAY fiberglass with white fibers running through it is correct for 1967 and possibly some portion of 1966. The dark '67 fiberglass is often called "black" in order to distinguish it from the earlier light gray fiberglass of previous model years, but it is not actually "black".

If my understanding is correct, the fiberglass color for the unpainted fan shroud in 1967 is the same as any original unpainted section of a Tire Tub and/or lid, which is also very dark gray, with white fibers running through it, just like your original '67 body panels should be, if you stripped the paint. The amount of white fibers seems to vary, but the dark gray color seems very consistent between my original '67 body panels, original tire tub and a NOS LH '67 fan shroud section with the raised "DS" logo.

If I am wrong about any of this, someone please explain.

Scott

[Paul D.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Scott is right on. Un-painted natural 'glass,just like your tire tub.Dark gray with the hairs showing......P..

[John H.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Scott is right on. Un-painted natural 'glass,just like your tire tub.Dark gray with the hairs showing......P..

Kinda makes you wonder why the '66 JG says the SB shroud is painted black and the '67 JG says the SB shroud is unpainted natural fiberglass, when both used exactly the same shrouds....

[Scott S.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Kinda makes you wonder why the '66 JG says the SB shroud is painted black and the '67 JG says the SB shroud is unpainted natural fiberglass, when both used exactly the same shrouds....

John,

Since the 1966 Assembly Manual (UPC 11-13-A6) doesn't call out any paint for the shroud, wouldn't that indicate that if it actually was painted black in 1966, then it would have arrived already painted from the manufacturer?

If the fan shrouds had been painted at St. Louis, where would that operation have taken place, and would such a scenario "fit" with the general assembly sequence?

Do you recall if the fan shrouds were painted or bare fiberglass when you were there in 1967? It would be great to get some clarity on this subject.

[John H.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

John,

Since the 1966 Assembly Manual (UPC 11-13-A6) doesn't call out any paint for the shroud, wouldn't that indicate that if it actually was painted black in 1966, then it would have arrived already painted from the manufacturer?

If the fan shrouds had been painted at St. Louis, where would that operation have taken place, and would such a scenario "fit" with the general assembly sequence?

Do you recall if the fan shrouds were painted or bare fiberglass when you were there in 1967? It would be great to get some clarity on this subject.

Scott -

There are no paint callouts on ANY parts in the A.I.M.; all the parts to be primed or painted in the assembly plant were listed on the Chevrolet-Central Office Paint Standards Department-issued "Painted Parts List", which was provided to each plant's Paint Superintendent, with the paint process instruction codes for each part on the list. Unfortunately, none of those internal memo lists survive today, so we go from memory.

I don't recall the detail on the fan shrouds, but I never recall ever seeing fiberglass fan shrouds being painted in St. Louis, either in the main booths in the Paint Shop, or in the small off-line small-parts booth in the middle of the Trim Shop. If they really painted 125 of them every day, I'd have seen them being carted around somewhere. The steel fan shrouds used in '63-'66 were welded and flow-coat primed in the St. Louis main passenger/truck plant (along with wheels and all the other primed metal parts), racked, and delivered across the back yard to the Corvette plant, which had no black prime facilities at all.

My production-guy logic is telling me that the fiberglass fan shrouds weren't painted at all. If St. Louis bonded the three pieces together, the pieces had to be raw and free of paint, and if a supplier bonded the three pieces together, they wouldn't have painted those bulky shipping-inefficient assemblies afterwards and then stacked/racked them against each other to gouge/scratch the paint in shipment.

Chevrolet didn't pay to ship air (except for gas tanks).

[Wayne W.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Earlier ones in 66 were certainly light gray, and would not look very good like that. I dont know where they were painted, but they were somewhere. Later ones , and the 67s were what we call black glass, and would not have needed painting to look OK.

[Russ S.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Scott -

There are no paint callouts on ANY parts in the A.I.M.; all the parts to be primed or painted in the assembly plant were listed on the Chevrolet-Central Office Paint Standards Department-issued "Painted Parts List", which was provided to each plant's Paint Superintendent, with the paint process instruction codes for each part on the list. Unfortunately, none of those internal memo lists survive today, so we go from memory.

I don't recall the detail on the fan shrouds, but I never recall ever seeing fiberglass fan shrouds being painted in St. Louis, either in the main booths in the Paint Shop, or in the small off-line small-parts booth in the middle of the Trim Shop. If they really painted 125 of them every day, I'd have seen them being carted around somewhere. The steel fan shrouds used in '63-'66 were welded and flow-coat primed in the St. Louis main passenger/truck plant (along with wheels and all the other primed metal parts), racked, and delivered across the back yard to the Corvette plant, which had no black prime facilities at all.

My production-guy logic is telling me that the fiberglass fan shrouds weren't painted at all. If St. Louis bonded the three pieces together, the pieces had to be raw and free of paint, and if a supplier bonded the three pieces together, they wouldn't have painted those bulky shipping-inefficient assemblies afterwards and then stacked/racked them against each other to gouge/scratch the paint in shipment.

Chevrolet didn't pay to ship air (except for gas tanks).

The original shroud on my 66 March car is the lighter fiberglass and is painted.

[Bill H.]

Re: 67 Small Block Fan Shroud

Here's the bottom of my 67 showing the darker gray glass with strands.