Jeep project underway

[Mike K]

Long term saga with the front springs .

My jeep came with the 1950s Aust. post-war made springs.

I later on found a couple of WW2 era front springs , in very bad shape.

Purchased 2 new front springs from a vendor here.

Ok the story:

Repro front springs look very little like the WW2 era springs: leaves are thicker, no bevel on the edge of the leaves, the clips look all wrong, the centre bolt is a joke , how people can sell junk like this !

Pulled apart the WW2 era springs. Hmmm some deep pitting is evident , sagging too and one main leaf end is bent badly. Wear is evident where the leaf ends move and dig into the next leaf.

So I made up a spring pack using the new repro main and 2nd leaves and the rest are the old original WW2 leaves . I had to re-arch the old leaves in my pipe bender. Had to bevel the edges of the repro main and 2nd leaves .

Now make new Willys style spring clips..... the originals are .110" gauge . All I can find here is 3mm flat bar, but it is the correct width .
Lots of filing cutting . Had to make a die to press the dot into the clips and heat up up the metal cherry red .

Very hard to get a tight radius on the 3mm bar ,so my old trick, you cut half way through and bend, then weld and file the radius ...do this 24 times for 2 springs

Also had to machine up new centre bolts , out of good steel, not the plastic stuff the repro bolts are made from. The bolt head needs to be a good fit in the spring saddle .... which is usually worn to a oval shape.

Been working on these springs for over 2 years ..... not finished yet.

I have become rather fed up with the poorly made and expensive repro parts ..I now make my own parts when it is feasible to do so.