Hey, just wanted to share my recent adventure refreshing my original leaf springs. So I set out to do this in my regular guy garage. I have no real power or air tools. No car lift but was determined to do it. First I had to figure the best way to block up the car. Then how to start removing things.
I started at the back with the shackle and trying to pry out a 55 year old rubber bushing with the bolts. Very tricky business to not bend and ruin the shackle but still get it out. Once freed from the rust hold that was holding it I was next to tackle the the main brackets that are held in place by the U bolts.
This was a challenge to get the nuts off the bottom of the u bolts and break the top plate away from the rust encrusted connection to the bottom plate. The two large rubber isolators were heavily crusted inplace. Once freed, I could move to the main front eye bushing bolt. This is the one you pray is not frozen. Mine came out nicely with little rust and effort.
So now that it is removed I was on to cleaning parts.
I don’t have the luxury of sand blasting so do every think with my drill and wirewheels. Once clean I treat the rust with Ospho(propheric acid) which causes the rust to chemically changed it from iron-oxide to iron- phosphate and a paintable surface.
I choose to paint all the metal gloss black.
Once painted it was time to get it all back together.
I was proud to have finished my rear driver side today with every thing reinstalled! I was happy as could be after working on it on and off for 2 weeks.
It’s all about the prep and cleaning/treating the old metal to make it look almost like new again.
That is how I roll. Yes just going to just be a driver but I want it to look nice and feel good about it.
When cleaning and then painting the springs, I noticed what looked like writing in my paint. I was really taken back when the sun light reflection on the gloss paint was highlighting what looked like letters. With just the right light reflection I was able to make out very crud letters which spelled COUGAR!
It looks like a kid wrote it but I think it was done on purpose at the factory with something like a wax pen as the metal around the letters is rougher than the metal of the letters. It’s just on the bottomside on the front part of the spring.
I would love get others opinion on this as it is unusual to me and clearly purposeful and in the metal.
I took several pics and will post them hopefully tomorrow. They were to as he of a file for the parameters of our site here so got a get that worked out.
My guess is that writing was done at a wrecking yard to separate the longer wheelbase Cougar spring from a Mustang. Paint pen pretty common tool to mark used parts. Seems like use of “used” parts was a more common repair practice years ago before the internet came along.
Agree there was no reason to label the application for the springs in hand writing on the springs at the plant that made them or at the car assembly plant. That was what the identifying engineering numbers stamped in the springs and the paint markings on the springs were for
Here are some photos I tried to share last night.
The first is the best shot in the light I could get. The second is with my help and the highlighter.
These were the original leaf springs on the car. Nothing had been taken off until I did it. The writing is in the metal, not paint marking. The metal didn’t rust were the marks were as it is smooth while the metal around it is not.
The car was totally original when I got it. The only add was a newer radio and antenna.
So don’t think this was done at a wrecking yard. But not sure who or why yet.??
I used longer U bolts as I will probably add a lowering block on 1 inch but want to wait till I’m done and car is on the ground and has a normal load before I make that decision.
Looks like the “Cougar” lettering was applied with a paint pen. Then the springs sat in a pile rusting until someone purchased them from the junk yard.
50+ years is a long time and our cars were designed for 10. So it’s not surprising to find parts like rear springs have been changed out somewhere over that many years. The mounting hardware could just as easily be that rusty after 25 years as 50. But regardless, looks like you have a good set of factory correct springs on there and are doing nice work. I need to do the same thing on mine. My rubber isolators are no longer isolating and it’s noisy in the back seat under full throttle acceleration.
I guess that could always be a possibility. The thing is they ( the springs ) are in very good shape for their age. Just some rust around where those isolaters are able to hold in the water. They were stuck on there good. I cleaned them off good and painted them so they should be good for longer than I will be around. Anyways I thought it was pretty cool to see that a marker or grease pen could last that long and still be seen.
I get it. So it wasn’t a factory thing. Still pretty cool to see on a old leaf spring!
I used a wire wheel on my drill to clean them off and clear the rust before painting. Couldn’t see until it was painted.
It looked like a snail had left a slime trail at first!
Bill, yes I fully agree. I enjoy pulling things apart for the first time to see what I may find!
I like seeing the old part numbers stamped into the metal and understanding how things were done.
One of the small joys. For me it is my first time ever doing this so it’s all interesting!
That’s alot of the fun for me too! Taking lots of pictures like you have done will come in handy later when you try to recall all those part numbers, date codes, and what part goes where.
