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I am starting on making the patterns for the metal spring covers. I thought about the Rudy Rosales leather route, but would prefer to go with the metal, as I am a steel guy.
Based on what remains of mine, I was going to uses 28 GA (.0157/.0217″), coated Galvanized or galvanneal( if I can find it) sheet. 26 GA is only about .003 heavier, so that would work too. They are hemmed together on the bottom with a single hemmed seam.
I was going to use galvanized/galvanneal sheet as
1. It has better corrosion resistance
2. The sacrificial action of the zinc will protect the cut edges from corrosion.
3. Most galvanized is made to allow for ease of bending as it is used in duct work
The other options are to use Cold Rolled steel (you can’t get Hot Rolled steel this light) or Aluminum. My upbringing has been “if a magnet won’t stick to it, it isn’t metal”, so that was also a vote for galvanized/galvanneal. Cold Rolled has to rely on paint to provide the corrosion as it is bare steel and I felt it might wear off easily in use.
One negative is that galvanized has relative poor paintablility, requiring careful surface treatment and paint application. If you can find galvanneal, it has better paint adherence. Galvanneal is more industrial and you probably won’t find it at Home Depot.
On the rear spring on my ’33 836, there are 5 covers on the front half of the spring and I assume 5 on the back ( all mine on the back are missing). I was planning to make a pattern/buck to fabricate them on.
Can any one verify the cover count, the hemmed seam on the bottom, comment from personal experience or make any other comments on the approach?
Thanks in advance.
Bill
Does anyone have a picture of these? Bill, how about stainless? I know it is much harder, but at this gauge it shouldn’t be an issue. Also, how about powder coating in lieu of paint?
By the way, how far are you from the Big Chicken in Marietta? That’s pronounced MAY-retta by the locals, including my wife, who grew up there. Great greasy chicken if you like it!
Bob,
17.56 miles. One of the problems is that the covers have to be hammered closed on the spring. That may exclude the powdered coating. I checked today and there is some material between the cover and the spring. I will do a forensic exam to determine what it is.
Stainless is intriguing, but also has a paintability issue.
Would you like a mixed bucket of spicy, original and grilled, or just one type.
Bill, am in the process of re-assembling the rears on my ’35. My original covers were in fair condition and as discussed last year when I asked they are very soft metal that easily unbent to take them off and had no problem re-bending to put them back on without cracking. I believe the wrap material underneath is canvas, and that is what I used to replace. The canvas was there to help hold the grease in, and when I took mine apart and cleaned them there was no doubt the leaves were slathered in grease then wrapped: I had to clean it all off the leaves. There was some discussion a year ago about this, but I am redoing the original way, thus I am now in the very messy process of re-assembling the leaves and coating with grease between every leaf. Did the same to my Packard 30 years ago and it is still squeak-free – knock on wood.
By the way, there were 10 total covers/spring on the rear of the ’35, and “fair’ condition means almost every one had been stabbed by a screwdriver. I assume someone was trying to force grease in to fix squeaking, which likely was actually happening at the ball bearing pin of a rear shackle that had “landed” on the backup ring of the shackle bearing when the pin had been pounded in by the ball.
Good luck making them, you are definitely a hands-on doer! Loved your remanufactured horn ring!
Jim
Jim,
Great info. I mic’d the wrapping and it was .030. I agree with your canvas analogy. Where you able to tell the wrapping pattern? Barber pole, folded over lengthwise, ????
Thanks,
Bill
William & Peggy : I just did this procedure this last year the whole job is tedious to sa te least! Rudy Rosales fabricates the metal spring covers as well as the leather ones.I believe the cost ,quality he uses the right zink coated metal. All you have to do is take and transfer a few measurement on to a sheet of paper of a drawing of a front and rear pring and give him as much information as possible such as how many segments they put on from the factory he will fabricate and send you what you need.As for the cloth covering you are all right it s Duck Canvas you can fin this on line by googling the material. Onece you get the material make a paper patern of each spring from eye to the axle lengthwise so that when you lay the canvas over the greased spring it fits over the sprin like a sock cut the material wide enough so that you can overlap it at the bottom of the sprig using enough grease so that as you wrap the canvas around the spring lengthwise it becomes a sock it’s messy but use lots of grease! Then install your cover segments so that they overlap just as Rudy sends them to you! Rudy sends a piece of matching zink channel with each set of segments that match the detentions of that set of segments this piece slips over the bottom of the segments and locks in each segment as you work it back toward the eye or the center of the axle , witch ever end is easiest to start the channel from.Once tis is all done using a flatt body hammer work your way along the channel and peen both edges down flat ,clean all the grease off and your ready for paint.
Michael,
Great information. Thanks for sharing all the nuances. I guess it is best to do with the springs off?
Thanks again
Bill
Just finished replacing my original covers. I did it with the springs remounted to their shackles on the car. Actually, I assembled and greased the spring leaves on the car. The rears are pretty heavy and I have reached a point where I have to be careful of my joints and how much heavy lifting and twisting I do. For this reason I mounted the main leaves to the fwd hanger first and did the adjustment to the Fafnir ball bearings. With only one leaf it was much easier to judge when the hanger bearing reached a preload. I then greased the bottom of the main leaf and added the next leaf using 3 clamps and the spring bolt to align. When I had about 5 of the leaves assembled and clamped the arch of the spring was about right to assemble the rear shackles and torque. Then finished adding the rest of the leaves and added the nut to the bolt for the final compression of the leaves after removing the clamps. Then added more grease to the bottom and did the canvas and covers. 1 can of grease per spring. Not the way it was done at the factory, but much easier on my joints.
I also did the front spring covers after being mounted to the car. Of course I probably would have done them off the car if I didn’t have the great luxury of a lift to do it at a comfortable height.
As Michael noted above the best I could tell of the semi-rotted canvas when I took it off with big mess of long dried up grease was that it was simply cut and wrapped lengthwise with a bit of overlap on the bottom. “barber pole” might be a better way but I think the overlaps would risk the covers not fitting over the extra thickness. The grease kept the canvas in place nicely while putting on the covers. I don’t think it is necessary to grease the outside of the canvas, and not doing it greatly reduces the mess. I put the covers on from the middle of the spring and worked outward, I think it would be really difficult starting from the ends as each segment wraps around the outside of the next segment towards the middle.
By the way, if it helps at this point my originals measured .020-.022 thick. I can’t say why I think this, but I think they were terneplate, which is fairly similar to galvanize.
A mistake I made on my Packard years ago was waiting until they were installed to paint them. They move around with the spring flexure so I ended up with little bands of unpainted metal showing through. This time I painted all the segments separately before installing, then I will paint again after installation.
Have fun!
Jim
Jim,
Great info, just what I was looking for. I determined the cotton duck canvas would be a #12 weight, which is .0295″.
Bill”
That’s what I used. 30 years ago when I did my Packard the only canvas I could find in town that wasn’t a big tarp was a bit heavier and pink. Don’t remember why I had such a problem finding it but I still have some left. Could have used it on the Pierce, but it always bugged me that it just wasn’t right using pink canvas, so I found some tan this time.