climbabout

I am lining up my fall/winter projects and the first order of business is a new sping for my 64 PG car. After a thorough search here, I'm leaning toward the Eaton spring as I believe it is US made and very close in appearance and performance(ride height) to the factory spring. Many of you recommended this in an earlier thread of mine. My question is regarding painting. Many folks here suggest the Quanta Liner and paint kit. It has been suggested to to order the Eaton spring unpainted as it will come painted if you do not specify.

Here's my question - is there some reason why you folks don't just paint the grey Quanta color over whatever finish Eaton applies?

Thanks
Tim

Frankie the Fink

Here is what Eaton says about it:
http://www.eatonsprings.com/techques...ingsprings.htm

climbabout

Thanks Frankie - that answers my original question, but raises another.
Their tech site says not to paint the surfaces that touch between the leaves. Can anyone tell me if the factory did? I do not have my judging guide handy. Pictures on other threads here show folks just paint all surfaces of the leaves grey - would that be correct?

Thanks
Tim

Powershift

The factory used a zinc-rich coating, and not a paint. It was called Ionaklad. Original instructions were to apply to only certain parts of the spring, but on my spring and many others, it was applied about everywhere. The spring factory used a brush for this.

Not certain that Quanta still sells this correct zinc coating......as you could not buy it a few years ago. Perhaps they brought it back, or perhaps they now just sell a gray paint.

The closest I have found to the original coating, is Krylon Spray-on Industrial Zinc Rich Primer #S00740. This is for a medium size spray can......you will need 3 or 4 cans for a complete spring assembly. It is somewhat difficult to find, unless you live near a shipyard or large chemical plant. But you can buy on-line. It is about 93 percent zinc in an epoxy binder. It is the correct grey color.

I used a power grinder with a fine wire brush to clean my old spring, and then LIGHTLY sandblasted a few difficult areas. Then coated completely with the zinc primer.

In my opinion this is the way to go..........but everyone has their own idea. So this is simply FWIW

Larry

Frankie the Fink

Personally I think a single pass of primer and top coat on the inside of the springs won't cause more world hunger or the expansion of Communism. Eaton does tend to be a little "over the top" in their tech recommendations. As far as judging...who would even know if the leaves were painted where they touch ?? I painted my C1 original springs all over (C1 leaves are black except for the long silver leaf)!

climbabout

Thanks again all - we carry a CRC product called Zinc-it which looks to be the same product as the Krylon you mention above. Nice grey color as well and it protects against corrosion -
Tim

JohnZ

If you paint the leaves separately and then assemble with the liners, you'll be fine; remember that there's no liner between the top of the top curved leaf and the bottom of the bottom flat leaf.

climbabout

Thanks John - clear, concise answer as usual.
Tim
p.s. - thanks about the liners - I saw that from an older thread.

MiguelsC2

Good luck with that Eaton spring. They sit at the right height. But the spring rates are way softer than stock.

After buying 2 different springs from them. I have given up on Eaton.

climbabout

What spring did you end up with?

MiguelsC2

I tried Eatons 9 leaf. It sits right but bottoms out on deep dips. Then I decided to try their 7 leaf with an added 1 1/2 inch lift (to match my non f-41 front springs). It was actually softer than the 9 leaf. I knew I had been "had" at that point.

Thats when I noticed Eatons slight disclaimer:


"There are many aftermarket Corvette Leaf Springs availalble, but only EATON Detroit Spring offers springs that are NEARLY 100% correct.

We only use SAE5160 High Alloy Spring Steel in the manufacturing of all our Corvette Leaf Springs. But due to the reduction of available steel sizes we have to make a few slight changes. The thickness's of each leaf have been adjusted to sizes the steel mills now produce. Way back when, the mills would produce quantities as low as 5 tons of a size. Today over 20 tons of a size is the bare minimum of a size they will produce. And that is a lot of Corvette springs.

While the overall thickness of the spring have slightly increased, the fit, feel, function and performance of the springs are unchanged. The free arch have been lowered a bit from the factory specs in order to maintain stock ride height."

They should have added that the springs rate is not accurate.

For now I am living with Eatons 7 leaf. When I get around to it, I am going with Americas Finest Corvettes leaf.

http://www.corvetteusa.com/suspension1.htm

Here is their claim:

"Your corvette will sit at the proper height and have a real engineered spring rate same as the factory original".

"Our 7 leaf rear spring is the only spring that is made with each individual leaf engineered with its own spring rate which gives our leaf spring combined 315lb rate exactly as GM did it .This is the only spring on the market that has the correct shape, (each leaf is scalloped inward and upward), combined thickness and color exactly as GM originally. $379.00 each"