72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

I've spent some time away from the T/A doing the holiday thing. But back to work now. With the rear dif all finished, it's time to hit the springs. I disassembled one of the leaf spring assemblies by gently tapping the spring clamps to each end with a wooden mallet so I wouldn't have to try to unbend them. I then removed the center bolt and wirebrushed each spring leaf, washed them, coated them with oxy-solv rust killer and then painted them in cast iron engine paint. I then greased the plastic insulator pads and reassembled the spring pack and then tapped the clamps back into place. The spring steel that the leaves are made of is really rough and pitted, even without having been rusted. I guess that's just the quality that came from the steel mills back in 1972.

I have been thinking about how to duplicate the factory stenciled part number and ended up with this solution: I took a photo of the part number next to a ruler, uploaded the photo to my computer and then reduced the file size until the image of the ruler on the screen was the exact size of a ruler I held up to the screen. I then printed the photo out in black and white and cut the letters out with a razor knife...and voila, a perfect stencil for the original PL-461612 1972 455 HO with a/c rear leaf spring assembly!