66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

[Craig O.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Now I am confused. My 67 327 sb shroud looked like it was covered with black paint, but wouldn't come off with lacquer thinner. I used some paint remover, removed what looked like clear, and it took it down to rough grey fibers. The side flange says General Tire, GT, 3886886.

So, is this an original shroud? If not, maybe thats why it was so difficult to remove.

Was the coating a gelcoat? What should I do to make this look original?

Ken, I have only seen one shroud as you described on your 67 and do not believe general tire was a supplier of the original parts to the shroud.
as Ronald described I have only seen the 66 67 shrouds with the DS logo on the inside side panel. I have also seen some originals with two different Gray pieces . I have one with a med grey top piece and the two side pieces are of the dark charcoal grey . Craig

[Neal K.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Regarding 67 fan shroud. I have owned my 67 roardster since 1969 and believe it to be original to the car. The car is being restored so I was able to take a close look at the shroud. The fiberglass is a black color, natural finish(not painted). The three component pieces that make up the shroud all have part numbers which are the same numbers as the numbers in the AIM. The left and right side pieces have a DS and GT. Additionally, the left side piece has a General Tire logo. I have seen an example of another 67 shroud with only the DS on it. Otherwise the 2 shrouds look identical.
Don't know if this information is helpful but thought I would pass it along.
Neal

[Joe R.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Here's a couple three pics of the sides and top. Should help to identify if yours is the correct shroud for a 66 SB.

JR

[Neal K.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

JR,
Thanks for the pictures. My car is a 67 SB. My shroud looks exactly like your 66 with 3 exceptions. 1)Mine has numbers in the fiberglass and 2)an additional fiberglass ring on the bottom because it's an ac car and 3)your shroud looks like it is missing a fiberglass tab with a hole where an attaching bolt would go thru to the radiator support on the lower drivers side. Hopefully mine is correct for my year car.
Neal

[Joe R.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

JR,
Thanks for the pictures. My car is a 67 SB. My shroud looks exactly like your 66 with 3 exceptions. 1)Mine has numbers in the fiberglass and 2)an additional fiberglass ring on the bottom because it's an ac car and 3)your shroud looks like it is missing a fiberglass tab with a hole where an attaching bolt would go thru to the radiator support on the lower drivers side. Hopefully mine is correct for my year car.
Neal

Neal,

My shroud has a broken tab and is not cut for AC but has the indentions for the slots. I glued it together from three pieces of NOS fiberglass. Had several at Carlisle last year along with a couple of pieces of 65 396.
Just because yours has some strange numbers doesn't mean it not a GM original. Several vendors were used for fiberglass pieces.

JR

[Ronald L.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Joe,
I really doubt such a low volume part would have more than one supplier. Just one tool could have in a year supplied 4x the 327 volume for 67 alone.

I have a couple 67 shrouds that are know to come out of 67 cars with their clips intact and none have GT logo's. I also have a perfect NOS set of pieces in black glass - same thing DS.

We also have plenty of others and about 6 BB service parts which were the 68 BB version made with the white glass with 1982 dates on them and they all have GT logos.

I do not recall off hand when they got into the SMC business - but they did not last long, by about 1990 they were Ch11. Those plants were troubled for many years. You might try and see what the history was on GT, I did not get to far with a quick web search. I had more dealing with their competition which had far better operations and could actually stay in business, until about 7 years ago when they finally sold out.

[Joe R.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Ron,

ALL the NOS pieces I have are GT General Tire and have the DS logo also. These still have the GM stickers on them. That includes the black, gray and light gray (white) pieces.
Here's some pics of the logo's!

JR

[Ronald L.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Joe, I know you know NOS does not always equal year specific factory original.

The middle piece - 1980's... I doubt anyone has come very close to laying out the time line on the others but I have seen the backwards GT plugged in the tools. That is a very typical thing to do once you take over the tool as the supplier is required to put their identity in them.

They get the tool and bang bang GT, backwards is in the part - that probably happened in the 70's and stayed that way until the tool needed more detailed repair at which time they put the GT "logo" in the tool.

All along it pretty much is the same two blocks of steel. These dies are good for 100k a year, for many years. So if you got half the 66 and half the 67 Corvette only production - they had a lot of life left in them for service.

[Neal K.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Joe and Ron,
The numbers on the 3 pieces which make up my shroud are the same as the numbers referenced in the AIM UPC 11-13 on page A6. The three pieces are glued together(no rivets). The top piece has only the number on it. The 2 sides have, in addition to the numbers, the DS and the GT. The shroud is not painted but is black in color with fiberglass hairs showing. I have my original u-nuts which look correct to me although I had to replace several even them due to pitting and corrosion.
I agree that it doesn't seem likely that more than one vendor would be utilized. Any way seems to me that my shroud is correct for a 67 SB with ac.
I suppose the only outstanding curiosity question is whether a shroud can be dated by the existence, or lack, of the part numbers and the GT on the 3 component pieces. To me the jury is out on the answer to this question unless someone knows for sure when and/or why general tire started putting the numbers and the GT on the pieces. I can speculate that several factors might offer an explanation. One might be that over time, as additional molds were made to keep up with demand, general tire decided to add more information into the fabrication of the pieces. Another explanation might be that some of the pieces(those with numbers) were sent for assembly at another location while, even though less likely, some shrouds were assembled at the general tire plant and shipped as a complete unit(I see in the AIM that it shows that the 3 pieces were to be bonded together with a specified adhesive which indicates to me that the shroud probably did not arrive at the assembly plant as a complete unit thereby supporting the contention that each piece had a part number on it to aid in identification for assembly and for ordering purposes--- maybe general tire started out using paper identification tags and then changed to putting the numbers in the molds). Even another possible explanation is that as the need for individual repair pieces grew some new molds were made to include more information(the part numbers) to assist in fulfilling orders for the individual pieces needed for repairs.
Yikes!
Neal

[Ronald L.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Neal,
Very doubtful if there was ever more than one mold.

See my prior comment.

An SMC mold is good for 100,000 hits a year. 66+67 Corvette 327 only - how many? Not even 50,000 so what I am saying is that tool did not have additional cavities, nor was it worn out when the shroud design changed in 1968.

One might speculate that "if" GT existed in 1967 - perhaps they got the business late and then added the GT stamped in inverted.

Almost every part even to this very day - regardless of OE - has the supplier ID in the part.

Assembly - this was done at St Louis, not the supplier.

In fact if you look at the notes from last year here - they 66 67 BB parts were serviced as components and it was in 68MY that they service part became an assembly of the three.

One might speculate that "if" GT existed in 1967 - perhaps they got the business late and then added the GT stamped in inverted. They took over the BB shrouds for service too - another surrogate study item to gain a trend on how they operated.

We know for sure the GT logo that has the words General Tire was an 80's logo design. What the front door on that was, not sure.

The answers lie in finding someone from GT or CE that was there in the day.

[Joe R.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Was not the original question here, "Is the shroud this guy is trying to put on original GM,"????
The answer is, yes it is an original GM part! If he doesn't like the logo, he can grind it off! Paint it black! Who cares?
It should fit his 66 if he will tilt it right and install it along with the radiator at the same time.

JR

[Ronald L.]

Re: 66 fan shroud installation 327, 350hsp

Joe,
I agree w/u any of these can be made to work on 66 with the rattle can, 67 no as they were not painted.