New Old Spring and Other Parts

No witty title this time. Just an update on the spring situation, and a showcase of some additional parts for the hot rod.

So my friend turned out to have not only a better '26-'27 Model T rear spring main leaf, but nearly the whole spring (less the top leaf), so I bought it outright rather than trading him my seen-better-days reversed eye (and broken and welded in the middle) heated and bent main leaf.

This one has something I hadn't seen on mine, perhaps because the eyes were reversed: grease cups for the shackle bolts.


I will have to disassemble the whole thing and wire brush at least the main leaf, if not the whole thing, and mix and match the remaining leaves from my current spring to assemble a decent spring pack so the spring won't rest on the axle tubes like it is currently. Then I'll have to find and install another set of shackle bolts the right length to fit in the 2" wide spring.

Next, I neglected to photograph the '20-'25 oval Model T gas tank my friend sealed (with POR-15) and painted (Rustoleum semi-gloss enamel) for me. This was another timesaver job just to get it done, and I appreciate his having done it, because he was very patient to perform the various steps of etching, sealing, drying, etc. Here are the results. You can just barely see the inside, showing the baffle, in the second photo.



Finally, I decided to paint the spark plug wire tubes before mounting them, as they were only primered. Here they are wearing their John Deere Blitz Black paint jobs. The terrible flat lighting doesn't begin to show what a silky satiny black this paint is. I think it's a hard enamel, too (implement paint), so it should be tough enough for most applications on the hot rod. I think I might just use more of this in other places on the car as I really like the look of the finish, popularity or over-exposure of semi-gloss black hot rods aside.



That's it for now. I should be working on and replacing the spring this weekend, as I've got some "garage therapy" time planned; it's been a while since I've been out there. Until then,

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