Technical advice on melted springs

Hey Hambs, I'm working on a car that went through a fire...the rear parallel leafs got heated and sagged into an S shape...off brand car so finding parts isn't easy...I've located 3 so far in my area ALL missing rear springs (I guess they ended up on farm trailers). The old spring shops that used to be around have all closed down except for commercial trucks...although there are a couple guys who've stepped in to fill the void these are home garage type operations where they don't actually work on springs just order them up for you...and it seems very expensive since they're old and not a popular width they have to be custom made.
I managed to find a set of similar width springs on my old yard trailer but the main leaf is different... on the car the springs had one reversed eye...just wondering if I should press my old top leaf back into shape and use the rest of the other spring pack or am I asking for trouble? - thanks

 

Can you post what you are looking for ? If too OT then just photos and measurements.

 

White Front Garage in Yakima Still makes springs or modifies leaf springs but they only do springs one day a week in the summer time because it is so hot in Yakima and they only run the forge once a week in the summer. They made me a main leaf for my car trailer a few years ago. They will try to order springs first though.

My question is if the fire was so hot that the leaf springs clollapsed meaning that the rear tires burned or the building burned around the car is there enough car left to be worth saving unless it is build a complete new reproduction of a specific rare care using what is left of the serial numbered frame or engine block?

 

That's the trouble ...theyre S shaped no way to determine what the arched length was...1930 DeSoto

 

If the fire was that hot and the springs lost there temper, that's it for the spring. Eaton Spring can make what ever you want.

 

No just the burnt out hulk of a not rare or popular car....but it's what I have to work with right now yes it melted the bearings in the rear end

 

measure the width of the leaves and distance between mounting points on the frame so we have some idea.
Agree, the burnt leaves are toast, so to speak...

 

Any place that can take the original springs and re-arc and heat treat them should be able to make new ones. Since you don't have the original specs, they would either have them for either process or have to guess either way. Considering they are probably carbon steel, I'd be wary of trying to restore them, since the makeup is probably off now.
https://heattreatmentmasters.com/guide-to-spring-steel-heat-treatment/

You can try club classifieds
https://desoto.org/community/parts-for-sale-wanted-trade/
Along with checking vintage yards.
Best bet if looking for used is to find a Hollander interchange manual for the era and find out if any other cars used the same part.

 

If you found some with a similar rating and distance eye-to-eye, couldn't you fab up some shackles to fit pretty much any width? There's gotta be something out there currently produced that would work.

There's no way I'd personally try to re-use the main leaf if the fire was hot enough to distort them like that. That seems like begging for trouble. I'd modify my mounting points and shackles to utilize something commonly available before I'd try to re-use the bent ones.

 

95 year old springs? Seriously? Why not buy a new leaf spring kit and fab it in? I am not a big fan of coil overs in old cars but they would work as well I suppose.

 

If ya can't find stock replacements;;
Things we hope you know,; the ride hight you want,were the center of axle goes { with in frender well}= With that an a few simple tape checks of were spring brackets are or can be welded on ! Gives you size of spring end to end,with idea of were the axle should cross it{custom axle to spring bracket may be needed to be made. List of trailer spring size's are all over the place { and leafs can be removed or added as needed.}.
"Were there's a will,there's a way "= hot rodding

 

Trying to get a stock replacement for that specific car is impossible and your making that job even more difficult. Ther's a lot of Street Rod leaf spring kits online that are cost effective. You just need to be some kind of fabricator that knows the curb weight of what you're building and know how to use a Tape Measure. If you can't do that find someone that can. As far as the cost (I quote you) " very expensive " I say you're being to Cheep. No matter what parts you price checked 5 years ago it no longer applies. If it was $500.oo then it's now $1500.oo and going up. Get used to it, Fun costs money and more every day.
As for this,
[QUOTE No just the burnt out hulk of a not rare or popular car....but it's what I have to work with right now yes it melted the bearings in the rear end[/QUOTE]
If you're building on a budget and can't get past the leaf springs, you'll never get much further on that package.

 

cannot say enough good about Blacks Spring they really helped me out by making me a new spring .give them a call

 

If the fire was hot enough to de-temper springs and melt bearings...how wavy and distorted is that thin sheetmetal gonna be?

 

Get a pair of the springs Posies use in their '33-'34 kit and make some new mounts to fit.

 

If the car is burned that bad, not rare, or popular, so not worth a lot in good shape, why waste the time and money working on it. Junk it, and save the money you were going to spend on it and buy something worth your time and money.

 

Why not order a pair of AFCO Chrysler or Camaro leaves and build new mounts?

These two types have been the standard leaf springs in oval track racing for years. They are easily/readily available and available in several spring rates, plus they are not total odd balls that are likely to go out of production in six months and cannot be easily replaced.

https://www.afcoracing.com/store.aspx?itemid=3393&pagetitle=leaf-springs

 

Check your PMs, this thread just popped back up

 

As I mentioned, so, if your Desoto is a 6 cylinder car, should be correct to use my F10 springs.
I’d only guess spring rating would change for other models? No clue.

 

Press them straight enough to measure them [that isn't too difficult]

Springs can be re-heat treated [and you'll get another 95 years]
Press them to the shape you want, then disassemble and ship them off to get heat treated

This crowd is in your neighborhood [phone them and ask questions]

 

I would check with Eaton spring for the specs as apparently they have them all.

Secondly there is a spring shop in Langley near Brothers Auto Body and another in Surrey near the Patullo Bridge. Good luck!

 

What ever happened to the days when a person would take a tape measure to the junk yard and pick out some springs that would work for the project?

 

I remember those days well. I live on Long Island, N.Y. and sadly those places do not exist here. There are a few with newer vehicles

but they will not let you into their lots.

 

@rusty valley I have crawled around junkyards and a couple older (40s) mopars. The older stuff used a narrower spring and hanger than even late 50s stuff. By the 60s, the springs on Mopars were biased with the axle forward. Considering the rarity of anything but big heavy trucks using leaf springs and the weight gain overall, I wouldn't expect to find anything even in the ballpark.
Now if you are talking a vintage yard, by all means. But they should have an inventory list and the Hollander I mentioned. It's currently 100 degrees here at 4600 feet elevation in AZ. The good yard near here is South of PHX at 1000 feet elevation. I did it around this time last year. Would only do it again with knowledge!

 

I have used Eaton in the past , very helpful . But this was 30 plus years ago.

 

I went to the local junkyard on Sunday with a tape measure to buy a seat for my roadster. They had a bunch of vehicles that should have worked. They either had the wrong seat configuration or it was way too wide. So I bought one off the local classifieds for half of what it would have cost at the junkyard. The junkyard brought back memories but the selection has to be exactly what you're looking for or it's not a useful trip.

 

Not only that, but detempering of steel can happen below 300°F (depending on the steel) or as high as 1,300°F, and bearing damage can happen in temperatures even down at 255°F or lower as you'll damage the seals. If we're talking warping and melting of metal, all the metals in that car are suspect and I wouldn't trust the frame or anything else without hardness testing and a thorough examination. It's a safety issue at that point. If it's a burnt out hulk like he described, it's not a stretch to think the whole thing might be scrap metal.

 

Nailhead A-V8, I think this Post is a Fishing test just to see what you can get in added posts counts and a waste of HAMB space. Post up some photos of the remains of this so called 1930 DESOTO pile so we so we that are trying to coach you can decide if it's actually worth "Our" time or not. What I have pictured in my mind after you saying it actually melted the Bearings inside the Housing tells me you're on Fools Journey and dragging all of us along. Curing the leaf spring issue sounds like the least of your problems and not a big one to start with. The next issue may be How do I get the doors to fit back in the openings. I think you are in way over your head in project at hand and the content of your Wallet. I can't think of any part of your upcoming Salvage job that hasn't been covered here on the HAMB that you can find the answers to using the Search menu and after being here for 13 Years you should know how to use it along with posting photos. Step up or --------