Rear Spring Clean Up

[brad442]

Guys, I am in the midst of cleaning and detailing my undercarraige for Detroit next summer. I currently have the rear springs out of the car and I have a question. Can you have springs bead blasted and powder coated without effecting the spring tension? Or is this not a good idea? They are the original springs, the car only has 62,000 miles and still sets just fine. Thanks for your help.

[texxas8902]

I've never had them bead blasted but I have sand blasted my springs myself. It worked fine with no noticable change in the spring surface. I primed and painted my springs with chassis black and have had no problems. I have heard that as the springs compress and rebound that this can cause paint that is not powdercoated to flake off because of the flexing of the spring. I have not witnessed this in my case but I have heard about this happening. Oh yeah, this would be the springs on my 67 Cutlass not the 76 442, but I don't see where this would matter.
I don't see how the blasting and paint would change the spring tension unless you blasted so much that you heated the spring up. Is that even possible?

[brad442]

Thanks David. It would make sense that they would have to be heated up to effect the tension of the spring. Another question, were springs the "natural metal" color or were they black from the factory?

[texxas8902]

On a 77, I don't know. The springs on my 67 were not the originals, I think they are JC Whitney heavy duty replacements. I can't remember if they were a GM blue or red when I got them.(black with a GM blue dot maybe??) For some reason I thought the originals were black but that is just what I'm thinking and this may have absolutely no basis in fact.(I can't remember:D )

[73hurst]

Brad,

Original springs are black. They dipped the springs along with a lot of other parts in a vat of paint. Actually it was a vat of water with paint floating on the top. I tried it on my convertible control arms, and it worked like a charm. The trick is to use enamel, and thin it about 50% so the paint floats and doesn't sink to the bottom of the bucket. I used a 5 gal. pickle bucket and Rust Oleum black enamel. Just make sure you have a place to hang the part while it dries, and something to catch the drips.

Pete

[zodiacblue442]

Brad, original springs were satin black with the paper sticker that showed the spring code on one of the coils. There were a bunch of spring choices Olds put in the cars based on various engine and suspension packages. I've still got original springs on both my `73 442 and `74 Supreme. I THINK the remnants of the paper stickers are still on there!

[brad442]

Thanks Gary,

Myself and Jim Emmi have been working on a decal sheet for the chassis labels. My springs also had the paper remnants as well. I have attached the sheet as to where we are so far.