Absolutely. Take them down and use the spray paints for metal. There is a thread somewhere on the discussion forum of Home Decorating with pictures.... will try to find it. What a difference. (or maybe it was on another forum, can't remember).

Look on page 4 of the discussions for ceiling fan re-do with pics

Interesting, I've always heard that ceiling fans should not be painted because the fan will be off balance and it won't work correctly. The reason for this is that the added weight of the paint will not be evenly distributed. Has anyone else heard this?

Can someone post a link to the steps involved in painting ceiling fans?

if the ceiling fan becomes off balanced they make weights for the blades to rebalance it. I have serious doubts that paint would effect it unless there were lots and lots of coats. but then again the person in the store told me the same thing can happen from using a different screw. that is just really hard for me to believe.