Springs need love too!

The last month or so, I've been prepping parts for paint. The parts I've been dreading the most are the springs because they're just a mess. The front isn't so bad because it's new from Posies, but the rear is a stock Model A spring with a few extra leaves and the main leaf eyes reversed. I had tons of grease and old paint and even a little bit of CHROME left on it from who knows when! But it all had to come off if paint is going to stick to it.

Also, since the spring is more than 70 years old it really needed to have the bottom surfaces and ends worked on so the springs would slide and not gouge the adjoining leaves. LOTS of work! Should slide REAL nice now!

The front spring before...



The spring leaves AFTER some clean up.



I really hated how the extra support leaves looked (it's a "heavy duty" spring), so I shaped them to resemble the leaves of a stock Model A front spring.





The rear spring leaves after hours of degreasing. Ready for paint strip and surface prep.



Spring leaves a few hours later. Paint and old chrome stripped. LOTS of pitting on the bottom sides, but I guess that will just give the grease a place to sit when put back together, right?? HA!!



Remember the front spring clamping plate that I had cut because the other one was kind of whimpy? (http://scootermcrad.blogspot.com/2010/01/whatchaworks-does-cad-and-cutting.html)



Here's how it looks after hand filing and smoothing.