OK, so I got this idea....

What is the laziest way to restore my leaf springs. I have such good luck (and happen to be amazed) with Evaporust that I thought why not soak the whole spring in a 10ft piece of 4" corregated black drainage pipe and see what happens.

After letting it soak for a few days, I took it out. Fairly good success and even preserved what little was left of the paint daubs on the end.

My mistake was to mix what little of used evaporust with TSP and ultraone safe rust removal product to get enough to due one spring. I think thats what caused some of the blackening of the metal. And another issue was getting the solution out of the tube. I wound up with all of it back on my garage floor because I was too anxious and didn't wait for an extra set of hands to pour it out.

paint daubs..

another...

the next one, I'll used new evaporust. Which I don't have no choice now any ways.

I think it looks good. I think the natural finish is somewhat blackened steel like you would expect heat treated metal to look. If you take the rusty spring apart, you'll see they are black.