Rear leaf spring restoration

Q; I had my galaxie restored several years ago, and had a frame up job done. I had them put in new rear leaf springs, and painted them, but now there is rust creeping out from between the leaves. Do you think that maybe the old springs are still on the car?

A; the new springs can very well be on the car, after the leafs are assembled, there is typically a coating put on the assembly to keep it from rusting. Its common to clean off the coating and just paint them.

On a proper restoration, the new leaf spring assembly’s need to be taken apart, and if you are careful, you can usually reuse the clamps. From here be sure to keep left and right separated, prepsol clean each leaf, then lightly bead blast off the scale left on the steel from the manufacturing process, clean, then apply 1 good coat of a 2-part epoxy primer/sealer. Let dry overnight, reassemble the springs, clean, then top coat. The leafs were typically bare steel, so use a stainless steel, or bare steel paint, done correctly they will look untouched new for a long time, and no rust.

I sell a very good stainless detail paint that’s perfect for that .