What would you do? I have the original leaf springs from the car that are a little rusty but look in decent shape. I have never seen them on the car to tell if they are sagging or not. Would you restore or buy new? If I go the restoration route any tips and/or vendors to get replacement pieces? Also what have others done: re-arch, Paint, cleaning procedures, etc...

Jeff

Rearch, and restore. Also, it depends on the level of the resto that you do on the rest of the car.

The car is being restored to a high level, not concourse high, but I want to make the car as original as possible.

Jeff,

I have two 70 sixpack Bees - both have their original springs and sit at a good height. I would go ahead and restore the springs as is unless you know the car had a rough race history or was used to store gold bars in the trunk.

M426

Thanks Morty. Are your springs painted black or natural?

Jeff,

It's really hard to tell unless you have the springs out of the car and unassembled. Both my cars have been off the road for a long time; 1973 and 1983. Both are from Lynch Road.

Looking at the springs in the car I would say they are natural.

M426

Jeff,

I think you were also looking for a picture of the steering box so I took this while I was out looking at the springs

M426

As original as possible, put your original springs back on. I "think" they came with thin zinc sheets between the leaves (prevents corrosion) and I believe those are reproduced now. You could always call ESPO or another spring manufacturer or my Dr.Diff for advice too.

IIRC there are plastic pieces and zinc plates between the springs. The plastic keeps them from squeaking

disassemble and soak in some evaporust solution. Once done, they will look like new. Seal with RPM. Reassemble.

hi jeff, definitely restore/redo your originals. be careful buying "zincs" from all company's other than Frank B. . he makes spring redo kits with everything you need and his zincs are not "magnetic" strips of sheet metal, but real sheet zinc. . google on moparts. lots of talk about the "zincs" in spring rebuilding kits . ronnie

Frank can get you a complete kit, he gets the zinc sheets from a guy in Texas who makes them and sells them direct if that's all you end up needing.

Kent Johnston
36 Bendwood Dr
Sugar Land, TX 77478
(713) 865-0883

EXACTLY!!!

How to tell if the springs were originally bare metal or painted black:

Find remnants of the original latex paint daubs on width of top leaf at 10:30 on left front spring eye, or 1:30 on right. This area is the most protected from the elements and road debris, but any latex is usually invisible until cleaned non-abrasively. If cleaning with fresh Evapo-Rust, only soak for 1-2 days to preserve the latex - more time will remove it. After checking for latex you can re-immerse the leaf for more rust removal, if needed.

Carefully check under adhering latex paint and on the back side of latex paint chips for black paint. If none, the springs were bare metal. The latex paint daubs would have been a last step in spring production, after assembly and any black painting.

My 160,000 mile springs had black paint on the top side of the latex paint chips, indicating a spring shop had painted them black, not the factory.

For original bare metal appearance of hot rolled, heat treated steel bar for leaf springs, use gun bluing followed by RPM. See:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbt...tml#Post2454941

In my experience with gun bluing, the final color is more black than blue. Repeated wetting with solvents such as acetone or lacquer thinner and wiping with a clean rag will slightly darken the gun bluing.

Photo shows strut rods cleaned with Evapo-Rust, then cleaned with mineral spirits, and treated with gun bluing. The top one was further cleaned several times with acetone or lacquer thinner before bluing, and the bottom one was cleaned only with alcohol before bluing according to the bluing directions. Unfortunately the lighting was yellowish fluorescent.

Thanks for all the responses! Restore it is... I am currently restoring the steering column and putting the finishing touches on the 18-Spline. Then it is onto the Dana and Springs...

Thanks,

Jeff