Being a huge fan of the greaser and rockabilly subculture that started in the 1950s, I had an idea. Take an old electric fan that has definitely seen better days, clean it up, give it a fresh coat of satin black paint, add a new retro cord, and pinstripe it.
Of course being a stickler for research (sometimes) and not wishing to look foolish in the face of a master pinstriper, I looked around the internet to see if this was something that someone else was already doing. To my shock and awe, I couldn't find a single mention anywhere of someone doing this. The closest I could find were a few companies that specialize in fully restoring electric fans (mostly Westinghouses and General Electrics of the brass bladed variety).
So the path was clear. Now I just needed a fan.
As if by fate, a few days later, I found an old Silex Handybreeze that was made by a company in Canada at a local thrift store for $3. After taking it apart and cleaning the parts, I soon discovered that, under about 30 years of dust, the fan and especially it's paint job were both in surprisingly good shape. The oscillator gear was worn down, but aside from that, I was able to clean it up to "relatively new" condition. This was both good and bad news. The good news was that I was able to find a new fan to put by my bed. The bad news was that I would have to destroy a good condition original paint job to test my curiosity. Since I didn't want to do that, I was back on the quest for a fan to work on. I needed something that was dirty and had paint chipping off it, but still ran.
About three weeks ago, I found it at a flea market. My gem under God only knows how much dirt and grime. The only identifying mark I could find was the art deco style label on the front of the base that identified it as an "Arctic Aire". The cord was in dire need of being replaced (the previous owner had simply attached the old plug to a newer cord with electrical tape), the paint was chipping off the blades (badly), the base was caked in ancient dust (and I mean caked), and the fan shroud was bent, but I knew this was the fan.I did a bit more research before I starting ripping it apart since I didn't want to upset the vintage fan collectors by refinishing a valuable fan. All I could find was that the "Arctic Aire" was made by a company called Fasco. Not much else. After a search of eBay to see how much they were selling for, I was satisfied that this fan should be fair game without incurring the wrath of collectors.
So I began the arduous task of taking the fan apart and cleaning the parts. About four hours later (and possibly a mild case of lead poisoning from scraping lead paint off the blades), I had a pile of parts that were ready for a new coat of paint.
I had discovered while scrubbing the lead off the fan blades that they were made of aluminum and happened to still be in pretty good shape. So I decided to leave them as raw metal. The chrome on the cage was destroyed. There was hardly anything left of it and since paint is cheaper than sending it to a chrome shop, it would be painted. I found the perfect replacement cord at Mendellson's (a local electronics outlet here in Dayton, OH) and a vintage looking porcelain wall plug at a lamp shop in Kettering, OH.
After painting the body and center cap for the fan blades satin black and the fan shroud gloss white, I was ready to put it back together. I then added some white pinstriping to the black parts using a couple of artist grade enamel paint markers (since I don't have any One Shot sign painter's enamel or a camel hair pinstriping brush), attached the new red braided power cord, and voila.
I'd like to present:
"The Rockabilly Desk Fan"
The fan shroud is still a little banged up, but I think now it just adds character. All three speeds still work just fine and the oscillator works like it's supposed to. It's a bit loud. I'm not sure if it's something typical with Fasco fans or if I just need to re-grease a few parts. Fortunately my neighbor knows his way around old electronics, so I'm going to have him listen to it and find out whether it's an inherent issue or not*.
Here's some more shots from different angles.
And a shot of the fan running.
*UPDATE:
I had my neighbor look at the fan and it seems that somewhere along the line, one of the blades got bent at a different angle than the rest. This was causing the fan blades to wobble, which then caused the noise. So I removed the fan blade assembly, re-bent the offending blade back in line with the others, and put it back on the fan. It's still not quiet, but is also nowhere near as loud as it was.
On a slightly different note, I stumbled upon the website of the Antique Fan Collectors Association that was kind enough to post detailed instructions on properly packing a vintage fan for shipping. So I'm going to figure out what it would cost to ship the fan correctly and possibly put the fan up for sale on eBay sometime in the next couple of weeks (maybe months) to see if I'm the only one that thinks pinstriping a vintage fan is a good idea.
I had my neighbor look at the fan and it seems that somewhere along the line, one of the blades got bent at a different angle than the rest. This was causing the fan blades to wobble, which then caused the noise. So I removed the fan blade assembly, re-bent the offending blade back in line with the others, and put it back on the fan. It's still not quiet, but is also nowhere near as loud as it was.
On a slightly different note, I stumbled upon the website of the Antique Fan Collectors Association that was kind enough to post detailed instructions on properly packing a vintage fan for shipping. So I'm going to figure out what it would cost to ship the fan correctly and possibly put the fan up for sale on eBay sometime in the next couple of weeks (maybe months) to see if I'm the only one that thinks pinstriping a vintage fan is a good idea.
4 comments:
I am also repainting an old fan. The color is metalic red and silver cage. I also plan on doing some art deco spots or stripes on the base of the fan. I like the idea of the bright red cord.
Don
i'd be interested in the actual processes by which you refurbished this fan. such as how you scrubbed the blades free of paint so cleanly, what types of paint you used and how many coats, if they were primed, and or topcoated etc.
the loudness problem most likely has to do with endplay on the fan shaft. it needs to be shimmed up to get minimal forwards/backwards motion on the shaft.
The metallic red should work pretty good on the body of the fan, but be careful with using silver on the cage. If you're using silver spray paint, it can easily look like silver spray paint. Which, from what I've seen that has been sprayed with it, usually doesn't look that great unless you have a baby butt smooth finish before spraying. If the chrome isn't in too bad of shape, you may be able to polish it up (which would look ten times better than spray paint ever will) or (if you are friends with a chrome shop) you could always get it re-chromed. If you do go with the silver fan shroud, I'd recommend working some silver lines into the base to help tie it together with the rest of the fan and help keep the eyes from being drawn to the shroud. For your art deco spots and stripes, I'd recommend getting a hold of a camel hair pinstriper's brush and some One Shot sign enamel if you don't have it already and can afford it. Paint marker's work, but I can attest to the fact that they can be kind of finicky about laying down a smooth solid line.
It's been awhile since I worked on the fan, but I'll try to jog my memory to answer your questions the best I can.
1. The paint was removed from the fan blades with nothing more than hot water, a green "pots and pans" scrubber, and a crap load of elbow grease. It seemed to do the trick without damaging the metal underneath. Once the paint was off, I hit it with some Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish to brighten it up a bit.
2. After cleaning the fan and giving it a good hand sanding, I wiped it down with thinner to get the dust off and give myself a clean surface to paint. I then applied 3 or 4 coats (can't remember exactly how many off hand) of ColorPlace Rust Control Spray Enamel in Satin Black (for the body of the fan) and Gloss White (for the fan shroud) with a light sanding using 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper between coats. I didn't have a conventional rust-proofing primer on hand at the time, so I used the ColorPlace Enamel for both base coat and finish coats. If I customize another one (which I have about four other flea market fans from various makers to work with), I'll probably get a can or two of primer to use as a base coat. I didn't add a topcoat between the spray enamel and the pinstriping, but I have thought about giving it a couple of coats of satin finish clear if I decide to sell it.
3. I kind of figured that the remaining loudness wobble was partly due to the shim on the fan shaft losing it's shimming abilities, but haven't gotten around to getting a hold of something to use to replace the old worn out shim ring yet. That's something else I'll probably try to fix before selling it (or at least notify the new owner that it could stand to be done).
Hope that answers your questions.
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