Hello.
I'm new here so bare with me.
I'm a welder by trade, been one for 5 years now and have been working with metal since I was a little boy. (My father started out as a tin-knocker, now boilermaker)
I need a little help from some fellows with definitive knowledge who would know what I'll need to do and how.
How should I go about this? What process, etc.
You see, I'm interested in slightly modifying a front Model T Ford leaf spring at either end of itself, at the spring eyes.
What I need to do specifically (bare with me as this is not the easiest thing to explain on a keyboard! ha!) is to bend the first three leafs, starting with the main leaf, forward at the ends so that the first 4-5 inches of either end is bent forward. Level, and even. No twist, keeping each end level to where it was originally, horizontally. I had read in an old Model T speed manual from the 1920s, that after heating a spring and working the ends (either dropping it so it sits lower, etc.) to pour oil on it to cool it. It read that doing so would allow the spring to keep almost all, if not "all" of its original spring characteristics. Is this part of the process used?
This is for a 1920s era dirt track racing car I'm in the process of building right now. I know this exact thing has been done successfully several times because a man by the name of Johnny Gerber who lived and raced in the 1920s did this very modification to his front springs as he had a very good friend who was a blacksmith. Not one spring ever broke, but were replaced after one or two mix ups at the tracks after others had spun out and caused John to crash into the guard rails.
The tools at my disposal for this are:
- Cutting torch with a rosebud end (or cutting tip, whichever would be better)
- Anvil
- Large vice
- various handtools, hammers, etc.
- will power and an open ear!
I'm going to try and add some photos of the spring that is still on his old chassis at the National Sprint Car hall of Fame.
Thanks a million fellas!
(Photos of Johnny Gerber's front Model T spring)