Restoring - General discussions that span across many different groups of years and models > Suspension

1966 coil spring...Black paint or raw steel

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Maksim27:
Guys I'm still having decision issues on weather to paint my coil spring or leave it bare dark steel.  I found traces of black paint on the upper side of the spring after de-rusting with a rust solution,.. The rest of the spring looked bare.  Before de-rusting most of the spring was covered with Factory undercoating and rust as I remember. 

I'm not sure if the Factory had a specific reason to only apply black paint to the top portion before installing the isolators on top.  Both my springs have remnants of black paint on the top portion. 

My question is were most the coil springs painted black or were some coil springs bare dark metal. 

The 1st picture shows the top satin paint remnants.
The 2nd picture is the spring that I refinished with Super-Blue.  But yet undecided to paint the spring or keep it as is.

Jan-66 C4 200 San Jose

Bossbill:
It was never raw steel and the connotations that brings to mind.
You have to think more of processes -- how was the part made?

Springs are heat tempered. Watch the show "Forged in Fire" and you get some idea of how metal is quenched.
You bring it up to some hot temperature (how hot I don't know with regard to a spring) and quench it in oil.
Drip dry.
If your spring was first in a new batch of oil it will be light. If your spring was dunked in oil toward the end of the bath's life, then much darker. Ask 10 people and you will get various opinions on how dark or light. Maybe due to  the oil used.
Forged parts also have an oil finish as they were hot enough to be malleable/stamped out and oil was used to cool them off and temper them.

I use Brownell's Oxpho-Blue Cream Formula after trying may other different brands. It goes on nicely with 0 or 00 steel wool and will get darker if left on longer. After you wipe it off you can lighten it a bit with a new pad of  steel wool. T-9 afterwards. I do leaf springs with it too. It took 8 oz to do all the heat treat metal on my car.

Maksim27:
Bill I was thinking of using RPM on the coil springs as a final rust prevention coat.   

If my car was manufactured in Jan 1966 how dark would the springs need to look... Is my 2nd picture dark enough or should it be lighter or darker.  I seen most other coil springs look painted to me by other Mustang owners.  Don't know if that is the darkening process or satin paint.

J_Speegle:

--- Quote from: Maksim27 on October 06, 2022, 08:29:07 PM ---Bill I was thinking of using RPM on the coil springs as a final rust prevention coat.   

If my car was manufactured in Jan 1966 how dark would the springs need to look... Is my 2nd picture dark enough or should it be lighter or darker.  I seen most other coil springs look painted to me by other Mustang owners.  Don't know if that is the darkening process or satin paint.

--- End quote ---

You will find examples of what I and others have done but using pictures on the internet rarely reflect what they look like in person. Since these were heat quenched in oil and often very dirty and used oil the coloring will be a very very dark gray - almost black. If you used gun repair fluid or one of the other cold blackening products, strip, clean and prep then color by dipping pour and brush it on in an effort to get a consistent finish them dry, heat if you choose and finally apply a protective wax, oil or coating of your choice

Often we find coils that have been painted by owners and Service/NOS parts were painted black for storage purposes but all of the originals I have found were not painted other than the paint ID markings.  The quenching oils over applied a hard surface that appears to be paint for some but stripper does not affect this and in turn provides that those were not painted

Some of the process above are covered in threads or articles in the Library associated with words such as restoring natural finishes and suspension restoration

Maksim27:
"If you used gun repair fluid or one of the other cold blackening products, strip, clean and prep then color by dipping pour and brush it on in an effort to get a consistent finish them dry, heat if you choose and finally apply a protective wax, oil or coating of your choice"

So I strip off the super-blue in the 2nd picture of mine and which type of dipping do I pour.  Does the coil spring needs to be bare again to pour something on it and use a brush. 

In the library of natural finishes section it only says to use different types of perma-blue from liquid to paste.  Does mention other other ways but not concretely.

My spring does look fairly dark with super-blue but probably should be darker like black in appearance.

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