From what I have observed on unrestored/survivor cars, if it was equipped with a Dana 60, the leaf springs were painted black. Cars equipped with an 8-3/4 rear end could have come either black or natural, but I've seen more unrestored/survivor 8-3/4 cars with black springs than natural.

My car is a Dana 60 car and the leaf springs were definitely black from the factory. When I disassembled them for restoration, there was no black paint in-between the leafs, as Scott Smith stated. The tolerancing was too tight to allow the paint to flow between the leafs. Evaporust is the best method to strip the springs. It takes a little longer depending on how much rust is present, but the results are outstanding.

I have decided to powder coat my leaf springs, my Powder Coater showed my some parts he did in a color called "Black Jack" and since I'm not 100% certain they were bare, since there are some small flakes of black I think this will be a good maintenance free choice. I'm not going for O.E. concourse but do want thing to resemble factory somewhat. Thanks for all the help and advice.

Natural finish on springs:

Spring leaves are a hot rolled steel product usually with intact mill scale when relatively new. After being produced at a steel mill as a flat bar, leaf springs are further hot worked to taper the thickness and heat treated to obtain desired properties. The end result is mill scale on the surfaces, an oxide of iron, usually almost black or very dark blue.

At any Home Depot, Lowe's or other building materials emporium, look at the hot rolled steel concrete reinforcing bar, square tubing, flat bars, angles, etc. All these hot rolled steel items have a very dark range of colors, such as dark gray or very dark blue. Not silver, not anything like Seymour's Stainless Steel paint.

What you are looking at is intact mill scale. Natural finish steel springs should be the same color as front suspension forgings, another hot worked steel part with mill scale.

The best way I know to duplicate the look of black or dark blue mill scale on spring leaves is gun bluing after rust removal with Evapo-Rust. As said above, wash off the Evapo-rust with mineral spirits, then apply gun bluing according to the bluing directions.

Notice the blue color of hot rolled steel in the bottom photos.

As said in the link below, mill scale, a combination of FeO, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4, is "bluish black in color".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_scale

This photo from the link is loose mill scale pieces from hammering on red hot steel on an anvil. Mill scale on a relatively new and un-weathered spring leaf will be intact and tightly adhering.

Just dipped these drums in Evaporust (one at a time overnight) both look like the one on the right now. I'm doing these up like seasoning a new frying pan. Got some lard from my butcher (bacon grease works too) and smeared it all over the bare surfaces and baked in the oven at 250 for a couple hours. Leaves a slightly darker color with a dull sheen and should stave off rust for a good long while in dry weather driving.....We'll see, I'll post pics in the fall to see how well it works or not.

*BTW, that's the original red factory paint, the Evaporust didn't affect it in the least bit

Scott you should try toilet ring wax ,it wicks into the metal pores and stands up really well.
I learnt this trick from Mustie1 on YouTube

I tried that with my frying pans but my scrambled eggs started tasting like Sh*t.

😂

Seriously though, Ive seen that. The Linseed Oil is the key to his mix, its a well known rust inhibitor, the wax he mixes it with is just a carrier/sealer.

LMAO...

(Only thing I've used that for is to 'cut' primer for paint going on 'old' wood...

I'm not inclined to use that on my wood

I stopped by powder coating guys house last week and he showed me a clutch inspection cover that he sand blasted and coated in a Matte powder and it looked like great so that's the direction I'm going now along with other front and rear suspension parts. I'll post pictures once I get them back.

Great!! Now I can't eat eggs.!!!

Nuttn' but bacon grease on these. Couple hours in the oven today and they look like this. I'll post some more pics this fall after some summer driving, we'll see how they hold up.

*One thing to note since these are brake drums, the area inside where the shoes contact was not coated and the entire inside was de-greased with brake cleaner before installation.

that looks really good ! nice job !

I thought I would post a finished example of my restored leaf springs, after much deliberation and trial and errors with my powder coater I went with a natural finish. After I soaked them in Evaporust We decided to glass bead them and coat them in a Matte Clear powder for durability. I'm happy with the finished results and I reapplied the paint Daubs I found after the Evaporust did it's job.

That was the case with 440 and Hemi cars...

My broadcast sheet shows "044" for both left and right leaf springs for my 71' 340 Cuda but you are correct that most leaf springs seem to be different numbers.

Unfortunately the entire spring would have been dipped in the black paint. I left my leaf separators and spring clamps Zinc colored as well. Couldn't make myself scuff and paint them.