[Motoxjo]

My 69 Camaro has been lowered in the rear by a spring shop who heated the rear spring eyes about 2 inchs. from the end and bent them downward. Unfortunatly it was overcorrected. Anyone have any experiance with this type of repair? Can I carfully reheat it and bend them back in the other direction? I'm worried about changing the metals state. Will they get to brittle and break or too soft and bend? Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

[woodz428]

Spring metal has to be worked correctly to not lose it's "spring", there are several companies that offer reversed eye springs, I'd start fresh with some or the spring shop should be able to make you a pair.

[ March 30, 2003: Message edited by: woodz428 ]</p>

[TurboS10]

Spring steel is not something you want to heat. It will loose its spring as said before. I would get new ones.

Chris

[willys36@aol.com]

Your "spring shop" used a method that back yard mechanics (original hotrodders) abandoned 60 years ago. Torching springs is not only dangerous 'cause it not only removes the temper in the heated metal, more importantly it causes a very brittle area in the heat affected zone between the very hot and very cold parts of the spring. The ONLY way to modify a spring, short of having access to a heat treating facility and the recipe for heat treatment of the specific spring material in use, is to cold work the spring. The metal can stand a surprising amount of cold bending and stil retain its integrity.

Your best bet is to find a REPUTABLE spring shop and have them make you up a new set of main leaves and to reshape the rest of the leaves if any to get exactly the spring you want. It really isn't that expensive, surprisingly.

[Axelrod]

Just had the rear leaf springs from my '62 Vette re-arched by Detroit Eaton Springs in Detroit. They can make a spring, leaf or coil for any application. In my case, since the stock for my leaf spring is no longer available, (it has a groove down the middle) and since I am doing a mostly "factory correct" type of resto, I opted to recondition the springs rather than to have them make me a fully functional replacement.

Depending on the condition of the original spring leaves, the reconditioning process involves heating, re-arching, and shotpeening. I was told that re-heating takes some of the tempering out of the springs and is best avoided if at all possible. After examination, they determined my springs were in good enough condition to only require mild re-arching and shotpeening with no heating involved.

It sounds like your springs should be replaced. Detroit Eaton can make you a set of brand new springs with the correct drop desired for your application. They may even have them in stock.

[ May 03, 2003: Message edited by: Axelrod ]</p>

[troy-curt]

heating a spring is very dangerous, they will break sooner or later. have new ones made or buy ready made. do it now. if it breaks you really have trouble.