Engine Bay And Electrical Fan

I needed to install the expansion tank and electrical fan to the engine bay. The tank just needed to be bolted in place but the fan needed a custom bracket. I started from the tank.

The right side inner fender in my car was in pretty sorry state. Not broken but dirty, faded and paint was stripping off. I didn't want to add the tank before tidying it up a bit. So I sanded the old paint with some sandpaper and cleaned the surface. Then I applied some flat black paint to it. I did this with a brush because I didn't want to cover everything up for spraying.

The fender looked much cleaner afterwards. Also note the near-factory radiator support brackets! For some reason they were loose and didn't hold the radiator in place. While testing the car we just tightened everything up with a piece of wood :D It would have to be fixed later. Most likely the bracket is just a bit in the wrong position. Then I just bolted the expansion tank in, connected the hoses and filled the tank with coolant.

Then it was time to tackle the fan. I bought a fan that had a large shroud around it. Its size was almost perfect for the original radiator and I hoped that if would cool the water more evenly than just a basic fan. The shroud had a groove at the bottom and couple of bolt holes on top. I would need a support that would fit in the groove and another for bolting the top to.

I decided to use the original fan shroud attachment positions for my own brackets. So the first thing to do was to cut a piece of cardboard and see how large my brackets needed to be. After getting my approximate measurements, I drew the shape on a metal sheet and cut it out. The difficult step was next: bending the sheet without a brake. As I didn't have any real tools for shaping metal, I just squeezed the sheet between two planks and then hammered it to submission.

After a few nights of cutting, bending, hammering and cursing, the brackets were ready. I smoothed the edges with a file and then painted both parts. I wanted them to be matt so I first sprayed three layers of red primer and added four layers of matt black. After the paint had dried for about a week, I also decided to add some clear to protect the paint some more. At least the bottom bracket would need this as it would receive all the water and dirt from the road. I sprayed both parts with a few layers of matt clear and left them to dry.

After a week it was time to put the fan in the car. I checked the brackets and for some reason the clear had turned them really glossy. Perhaps two matt paints make a glossy one? Oh well, luckily the surfaces were quite smooth so the glossy brackets would do.

I bolted the brackets to the car and the fan to them. I was quite happy with the results as everything lined up perfectly. Next needed part was the fan sensor.