Shamus Blargostadt Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 anyone have any tips on tracking down good car leaf springs? There seems to be plenty of truck springs but man it takes forever to draw these things out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I see your from pittsburgh, there are spring shops around that bend and make springs for vehicles and equipment. My friend recently went to one and got good size for a couple of post vise spring replacements. Some of these shops are a little difficult to locate but there are at least 2 that I've heard of and you could get New stock instead of questionable used stock. If I can find out the name of the one I'll pm you. If interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Find a place that does vehicle lifts or lowers; if you can get a discarded set with low/no miles you rule out a lot of problems from fatigued springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSW Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Last time I actually owned a "car" all cars still had leaf springs ( read 1970-80's Mopars). I think most today are all coils vs leaves, but I wouldn't own a car today so I'm guessing from what I know of with friends. You may need to look at yards that have older vehicles if my thoughts are right on leaf vs coils in newer cars. Even a lot of newer trucks are switching to coils. Small trailers often use leaf springs, so that might be a direction to go if you are looking for smaller leaf springs. Look at shops that do medium to heavy truck service as these also are often equipped to do inspections on trailers and small to medium sized excavation and concrete guys often repair vs buy new trailers and they can easily do a number on trailer springs the way they load them. I deal with a shop that just does springs and heavy suspension work of trucks. They can get me pretty much any new spring I need for a truck or trailer and they do enough replacements that I bet if I wanted one I could locate a dead one from them without too much difficulty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus Blargostadt Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 5 hours ago, Daswulf said: I see your from pittsburgh, there are spring shops around that bend and make springs for vehicles and equipment. My friend recently went to one and got good size for a couple of post vise spring replacements. Some of these shops are a little difficult to locate but there are at least 2 that I've heard of and you could get New stock instead of questionable used stock. If I can find out the name of the one I'll pm you. If interested. Very interested! Thank you! 5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Find a place that does vehicle lifts or lowers; if you can get a discarded set with low/no miles you rule out a lot of problems from fatigued springs. ah thank you Thomas. I'll do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnailForge Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 I have not seen much leaf spring around here, but when I started out, I used old files. Over here you can find those at any garage sale because there are always a couple of guys selling rusty old tool boxes where you can often buy rusted Nicholson files for a dollar. Once you have some experience, switching to good stock is not going to be much more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chele Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Shamus May I ask why you want car leaf springs? Is it for a project for your self or to make into something to sell? I agree with a few post Why by any questionable /fatigue /old worn out ones? If I just am screwing around for myself ok but to use used metal for a resale puts that object at risk my be of failing where new metal not that costly. I do use train,car truck springs ,chain saws, wire rope and all kinds of good metal but only for myself or art objects. For knives id never use used . It is just the way I do things. My motto is it only cost a tad more to go 1st class so why cut corners on materials ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 you do know that brand new knife grade steels are about $30 for a 1/4 inch thick by 1.5 inch wide section 48 inch long right ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Autobody shops also replace bent springs. I parted out a lot of cars , so I acquired huge pile of them. I went to a garage sale a few months ago, and a guy gave me an almost new set off of a Jeep that he had lifted. Check with MSC, and ENCO. They sell O-1, and W-1 pretty often at a discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worshipdrummer Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Try drawing out school bus leaf springs. I have a ton of them but dang they are tough. I just like redeeming steel headed for the junk yard to rust into useful tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I had a student once that worked at a place that took large pickup trucks and re-built them into EMS vehicles; first thing they did was to change out the springs which were scrapped for liability reasons though they had less than 20 miles on them---the distance from the dealership to the conversion shop! Unfortunately I didn't need a 50 lifetime supply... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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