Fiasa Paint Color

[JBarker]

What color did Fiasa paint their windmills? I have a NOS D-702 that has blue paint. Anybody, know the paint code numbers? Thanks.

Jerry

[Ron Stauffer]

Jerry,
Early FIASAs that were brought in to replace the ill fated Conway green weenie was a red oxide color. The blue came after but before American Weest was founded in 1998. American West was sort of a candy apple red. The blue would have been built from very late 80s thru mid 90s.

The blue FIASA is known for it's very loose tolerances in assembly, early and late ones were better. I am not alone in my assessment of them as Dakota says they used monkeys to assemble at the plant. They can be tightened up in a rebuild.. We paint over the blue with red oxide. Anything other than red oxide on an Aermotor is a pre cursor of doom...

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

[JBarker]

Thanks for your information and wisdom.

[CTXmiller]

This is less informative than Ron’s post, but in about 2003 I purchased a NOS Aermotor A702 Fiasa production from a rancher that relayed he had purchased it new 20+ yrs prior. He had 16 blades and no wheel arms, so I presume that is part of the reason he never installed it.

It had Aermotor cast on the front of the gearbox and Fiasa cast on the reverse. I recall it had a 6 and some letters on the hoop consistent with the Aermotor date stamping and the assembler/inspector initial. Based upon the rancher’s statement, the castings on the gearbox and stamp on the hoop, I surmised it was made during the time Aermotor moved production to Argentina (approx 1969-1980+/-), likely 1976. I would only guess that when Aermotor canceled their license agreement/production with Fiasa in 1980 that Fiasa likely had to remove “Aermotor” from the gearbox casting to sell them after 1980 in the US.

Long winded to say it was red oxide/red-ish before I painted it cherry apple red.

I sold it in January 2023, still NOS with a tower to a rancher in east Texas that was upgrading from a X702 due to his water table diminishing.

I often wondered if I had a dime for each spider/spider egg that found its way in/out of that gearbox, could I afford to retire? Regardless of stuffing a shop rag in the mast pipe hole, spiders found a way in.

[Ron Stauffer]

The early FIASAs that came on board to replace the Conway greenie had an open Chicago style hub but is distinguishable to the discerning eye from a Chicago. Most blue FIASAs are the spool style that I have seen as with models thereafter.

Ron