Front Leaf Spring

[nkaminar]

Brent, does Iron Trap have original front springs that you could rebuild?

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=340500

[jak]

Originally Posted by Oldbluoval

So what is the deal with Travis at Aspring?
Website doesn’t work.

Travis closed up shop several years ago. He was having issues getting the materials to make the springs and finally he just gave up and retired. No idea where the springs were coming from or what was the issue was in getting the parts made.

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by BRENT in 10-uh-C

I think for many folks, the Eaton Detroit springs will be perfectly fine. The issue is their 8 leaf front spring leaves are so much thicker that they are the same height as what Ford's 10 leaf spring was originally. For a non-authentic driver-level vehicle, that probably is no big deal but for someone who wants it to at least be aesthetically correct, then the 8 leaf definitely would not pass.

I still will re-arch but I am out of good #3 and #4 spring leaf cores to use, so I need to replace with new if possible.

When I disassembled the front spring of my ‘30 a few months ago I found three broken leaves. I went on a scavenger hunt and had to acquire two more used spring sets to get the three leaves I needed. I cleaned them up, ground the tips and grooves, cold-arched them and repainted with graphite paint. At least span and overall arch are now proper, we’ll see how long it lasts. Likely longer than I will. If not, I’ll get an Eaton Detroit spring and say to hell with it.

Rear spring was intact, so all I did was grind and repaint.

[Brentwood Bob]

Jay jay, I would call that process a successful restoration.

[GRutter]

Is a higher resolution scan of the drawings attached available?
I'm trying to create radius templates for re-arching the front spring but those drawings are very hard to read! Thank You, George

[Klattu1929]

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I re-arched mine worked out great. Cleaned the leaves up, marked each with chalk every 2.5", 2" for the small ones, made a jig for the press. made a template out of cardboard using the ford drawing as reference, with arched lines. pressed each leaf to match template. Worked out great. If your going to purchase a new spring set anyway, nothing to loose giving it a try. if you have a press.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by GRutter

Is a higher resolution scan of the drawings attached available?
I'm trying to create radius templates for re-arching the front spring but those drawings are very hard to read! Thank You, George

Yes Sir. Contact Benson Ford Research Center and give them the Ford part number.

Originally Posted by jak

Travis closed up shop several years ago. He was having issues getting the materials to make the springs and finally he just gave up and retired. No idea where the springs were coming from or what was the issue was in getting the parts made.

To elaborate on what Jeff was saying, I recently encountered a similar situation where I needed to have a rear helper Spring manufactured for a 1903 Ford Model-A we are working on, and the issue is like Jeff was saying, ...no one manufactures the spring steel blanks any longer in the dimensions needed. Our option for this '03 is to slowly de-arch the Spring blank until we can get it totally flat, then use a WaterJet to reduce the Spring Blank width from 1.625" to 1.500" wide (-a cut will need to be made on each side of the leaf to allow the Spring's tie-bolt hole to be centered), then use a Surface Grinder to reduce the narrowed Spring blank to the correct thickness, and then radius and taper each end like the original piece was. Once all of this is done, we can begin re-arching each leaf (-4 leaves in this application) to the correct shape. Anyone care to guess what this is going to cost??

So unless a handfull of investors choose to collaborate to have a run of properly dimensioned spring material manufactured, it would appear the Detroit Spring's offerings are going to be our only option.

[katy]

Originally Posted by Eric Jensen

Thank you all for advice! Excellent information.

I’m going to attempt re-arching and see how that goes - I’ll post an update in the coming week on how it went.

Still waiting!