Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

[Brian K.]

Should you put any kind of grease between the spring leafs or just leave them dry? Thanks sincerely Brian

[Gary B.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Brian,

The liners used between leaves were made from graphite-impregnated, polyethylene and did not use or need any additional lubricant.
Gary

[Larry M.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Brian,

The liners used between leaves were made from graphite-impregnated, polyethylene and did not use or need any additional lubricant.
Gary

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Thanks Gary, Also I just wanted say your spring cushion retainers are the best just installed them in my trailing arms they look and fit great.

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Also Thanks to you Larry, I did purchase Quanta's kit.

[Greg H.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

I just ordered the liners from Vette Products along with the spring paint. Looking to complete this soon also. Let me know if you want to compare notes on the liners. I was tempted to cut the originals down using the next longest in the series and replacing only the longest one, but they are sold in complete kits. What did you use to prep and paint your spring leafs? Mine have been sandblasted but I need to go over them with a wire brush as they sat for a while. Was thinking to treat with some self etching primer before applying the spring paint.

[Larry M.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

I just ordered the liners from Vette Products along with the spring paint. Looking to complete this soon also. Let me know if you want to compare notes on the liners. I was tempted to cut the originals down using the next longest in the series and replacing only the longest one, but they are sold in complete kits. What did you use to prep and paint your spring leafs? Mine have been sandblasted but I need to go over them with a wire brush as they sat for a while. Was thinking to treat with some self etching primer before applying the spring paint.

Original C2 springs were not painted, but were coated with a zinc-rich coating to prevent rusting. It was called Ionaklad. Quanta used to sell this exact coating, but stopped a few years back due to environmental regs. This is the best substitute that I have found: http://www.sprayon.com/product-categ...-aerosol-wl740 We also use this in the chemical and marine industries and it works well.

I used a high-speed fine wire wheel on my Milwaukee grinder to finish prep the springs prior to coating. As far as I can tell, the color is a very nice match. It is also a zinc coating as original. I believe it is a better product than paint, and is used throughout chemical/marine industries here on the Gulf Coast.

FWIW: I think I located and purchased the last two GM NOS spring liners in the system. However, that was not enough to do the job, as the old liners literally fall apart after I washed/cleaned them. I went with the liners from Quanta for final assembly. They have worked well.

Larry

[Bill L.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

We were able to reuse the liners by moving each one up and just replace the longest liner with the quanta liner. The cold galvanizing spray available at Home Depot is very high in zinc and mirrors the original finish very well. The zinc also provides some corrosion resistance (As state by Larry) and lubricity between leaves.

Pretty sure Quanta will sell just the one liner. At least they did a few years ago.


Bill

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Hi Greg, my liners are shot (spots rubbed thru) but they still have the correct length. I plan on just cutting the new Quanta one's to match length of my old ones. Now I glass beaded my leafs and then sprayed them with SEM 39693 green self etching primer, let them dry and sanded with a 3M red scotch bright. I then painted them with the light gray spring paint from LIC my Quanta kit is from 2008 and looks like it has the Ionaklad Larry Mulder refers to, but the color is like a medium greenish gray. When I took my spring apart it had the lighter gray color between the leafs, now that greenish gray stuff from Quanta's kit matches my original 67 Camaro leaf spring color. Well back to what I've done, after I painted the light gray color I then top coated with Eastwood's Diamond Clear Satin finish. I believe the light gray paint is really a primer these companies re-lable and being a primer it would be porous and allow rust, that why the clear coat to seal it. I tested the Eastwood Diamond satin clear on a piece of angle iron, I ground 2 spots too bright shinny raw metal and then spayed 2 coats of clear on those spots. I place the angle iron outside for 1 week in which it rained twice, after the week no rust on the clear coated area's but rust starting on the rest of the angle iron (sold me). I plan to install new spring cushion retainers this weekend, I purchased these from Gary Beaupre. if you have a 63-66 you must buy his retainers they are a perfect match to my originals and fit the hole perfect and have enough material when installed to look factory correct, he rents a install tool but I wanted my own so I purchased sku# 25-11708 Corvette rear spring and trailing arm crimping tool kit $39.99 from Eckler's Corvette. Now the Quanta kit comes with a thread hex head bolt (YUK!!) this would not do so I found on eBay from Bigcity Corvette which I believe is really America Finest an Grade 8 repop center bolt. This is how repops should be done it match's my original bolt in overall length and width, has same length shank as the original (not threaded all the way) and correct round head. Only thing different was headmarking my had a "W" theirs "FNL". So I hope to complete my spring this weekend and I hope I didn't put you asleep with this long winded post, if you have any questions I'll try and help. Sincerely Brian

[Greg H.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Brian,
thanks for the excellent level of detail. You lost me on a couple things, though. The center bolt I was planning to re-use my original. You mentioned you have yours so why not re-use? Is it a problem? The retainers I gather you refer to the outside end of the springs, to hold the bushings, right? I had not gotten that far in my thought process, so is that what you were referring to?

I ordered the leaf spring paint and will check if it has zinc content then compare with the Home Depot and the other one shared previously Before I use it. I already have the SEM self etch primer but I got it in gray. So that should be a good start. I'll get them cleaned up and etch primed while I'm awaiting the outer coat.

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Hi Greg, My center bolt is a little rusty and being almost 50 years old I wanted nice new one. You are correct the retainers I was referring too are the ones on the outside edge for the bushings, Gary's just blow all others away I bought LIC's just to compare and their hole size is to small and not enough height for a nice clean install.

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Greg finished my spring today, I didn't realize that Quanta spring liners were pre-cut I check and they were all the same length as my originals here are a few pictures. MVC-001S.JPG MVC-003S.JPG MVC-004S.JPG MVC-005S.JPG

[Greg H.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

BrIan that looks fantastic. I hope mine comes out like that. I'm a little behind schedule so won't get to the spring now for a week maybe two.

Can an you tell me how to reach Gary Beaupre?

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Hi Don, yes my main leaf has the GLS. It was not on any of the other leafs. Sincerely Brian

[Brian K.]

Re: Rear Leaf spring rebuild question

Hi Greg, check out the 2nd post in this thread Gary answered my question just click on his name and send him a private message. Also I believe he has an ad in The Drive Line and thanks for the complement on the spring here is a picture of my frame so far. MVC-007S.JPG MVC-008S.JPG