Leaf spring? Paint? Powdercoat?

Looking for anyone with experience with either painting or powdercoating leaf springs.
Pros or cons? Is one better than the other?
Is either worth it?
Just planning ahead.
Thanks all!!

Wally.

Wet paint only.
The powder coat process requires a bake at 280-320 deg for 45 minutes to set the paint. that could change your spring steel behavior.

I prefer paint on suspension components. Powder is thick. At bolted joints, it will break down and loosen the joint. Satin black or semi gloss Rustoleum works well for me.

That temperature is too low to affect any steel; as an example high strength fasteners are routinely baked at 375 deg to eliminate hydrogen embrittlement after plating.

I wouldn't use heat cured powder coat without talking to a materials engineer first. 300 degrees is plenty warm enough to cause potential harm to the grain structure and temper of the steel if you do not control the conditions correctly.

I spray-bomb mine. Easy to touch up if needed.

what he said ....

I powder coated mine, no problems and easy to clean. 300 degrees wont affect the metal. If it did, what would happen to an engine block? A turbo, Exhaust manifold? These are all cast parts, where as spring steel is a higher quality steel.

Lots of good info and questions/answers on this site:
http://www.e-techpowdercoating.com/powder_coating_faqs.htm#Willheatdamageyoursubstratepart


Here is one question and answer


E-Tech Powder Coating provides Excellence in Powder Coating
Powder Coating Faqs ::

34. Will heat damage your substrate (part)?
No, the temperature used to cure the powder is less than 400 degrees. Titanium, steel, aluminum, magnesium are not affected by these temperatures. The temperature would have to be heated above 700 degrees to in order to affect most substrates.

Pictures of my rear suspension in 60% gloss black powder coat and the bell housing on the transmission is also powder coated, all rear suspension brackets are coated also, and trans cross member. I will be doing upper and lower control arms and k member in the next week or so

Tape off what you dont want coated, and the powder when done right is really tough.

I got plain, old rustoleum on leaves with 20 years of road-time...


If yer gonna drive, the leaves are gonna walk...


You'll be touching 'em up...


Don't know how yer gonna touch-up PC...

That stuff looks really nice.
I may just do powdercoating.
I can't see it harming the metal.....don't Cal-tracks come powder coated?

Yeah Cal-Tracs are coated, and all those factory powder coated wheels, Snap on tool boxes, kids toys, ect

PC is very durable. Plus, if you want to touch up paint, you need to remove rust, prime, re paint. Powder coated wheels last a looong time without issues. Only time ive seen any issues was from improper application of the powder.

Also, you can get high heat PC, Clear coat PC for UV protection (some powders dont have UV in it)

Its all about prep

Not to high jack the thread ...but... I always understood that the spring assemblies were either all natural or fully assembled and dipped in black paint.

One of the things I always see on graveyard cars is they have black painted springs with natural clamps. That would also mean the inner liners would be natural not black.

I have disassembled spring assemblies and since they are 40 years old it is hard to see the paint, but they look like no paint in between the each spring leaf.

I have never powder coated springs because of the clamps.

One thing to be concerned about is interleaf friction. Many leaf springs have a sizeable amount of friction that affects the instantaneous spring rate on jounce. This makes the ride less comfortable. Using some sort of friction modifier coating between the leaves could be a good thing.

Some spring steels (1095) are quenched in oil from around 1500F and then tempered at 700 - 800 degrees F. You'd have to go over that temp to change the steel's temper. Now if you just were starting out with the oil quenched steel, then it starts tempering at roughly 350 - 400 degrees F, but it seems like that amount of tempering doesn't give a durable enough spring so it is routinely tempered at the higher temps mentioned earlier.

R.

You are correct on the proper restoration technique. I decided to rebuild my spring packs, and powder coat the individual springs then put a new natural clamp on them. If you wanted to do it more correct, you could always tape off what you dont want powder coated and assemble as you wish.

Im a big fan of powder coating, since it is much more durable than paint. Yes, if you need to touch up from chips its not as convenient, but if I need to touch items up, I always choose to pull the part and re paint/ or powder coat the whole item due to any fading or corrosion.

Ill get some pictures of my rear suspension all assembled in the next couple days. It will show backing plate to backing plate that everything is assembled and powder coated.

Also on a side note, if you do choose to paint, you can paint over powder coat and the powder coat acts as a superior primer for paint. I have seen lots of people powder coat chassis then paint over them to help with corrosion protection.

Ok - so to do this properly, whether I paint or powdercoat (leaning towards powder) I need to take apart the spring pack and do them all separately.
Makes sense, I was thinking of doing them stacked together - that would obviously leave alot of unfinished surface - duh, common sense, I know.
I've never taken apart leaf spring before - is that a difficult task?
BTW - this is for my Demon which is not going to be an original #'s matching roll off the assembly line resto - just doing it the way I prefer, and hopefully to last a long time.

Wally.

when disassembling a spring pack, first install a large C-clamp around the spring next to the center bolt. remove the center bolt, then unwind the C-clamp. failing to do that will get your attention when the springs take flight when the center bolt and nut come apart due to the tension of the leaves with each other. reassembly is the reverse, using the C-clamp to compress the leaves together, then install a new center bolt. most center bolts come extra long, so you will most likely have to cut off the extra thread length. when i do that, i then use a hammer to pein over the thread area above the nut, forming a somewhat of a rivet head appearance. this ensures the nut never loosens, and this procedure is barely visible when done as the nut hides in the center hole of the shock plate anyway. this sounds way more difficult than it is. just be careful and use good safety practices.

moparconnectionmagazine.com has a step by step article on how to rebuild your springs. Check it out.