C2 Rear Spring Findings

[Alan Drake]

Just finishing up restoration of my C2 rear spring and want to post certain observations that have appeared in past articles and postings as questionable.
The spring was taken off my Mar64 car in early 70's and stayed in garage since then. 9 Leaf Spring #1 is bottom - next to road, #9 is top most.

The gray Ionoklad was always seen on the top of each leaf. The edges all showed the gray.
The bottom of the top most 5 leafs (5-9) all had a 85-95% coverage of gray also. The lower tops (2-4)showed only traces of gray with gray always noticable at the center bolt hole.
ALL NINE leafs had the curved ends!

Plan to cut the liners about 1" from end of each above leaf - IS that correct??
Note, liners were replaced back in late 60's with wider stuff and I forget to save the original stuff (again).

Leaf #4 has at one spot a marking of "GLS"

Thanks for everone's help with postings and articles.
Alan

[Chas Henderson #28127]

Pictures possible? *NM*

[Alan Drake]

Re: Pictures via Email and note;

Have cleaned all leafs and started to paint all but #3. So if pictures are desired of shape and other things that do not change, I have. Email me since I have no idea of how to post pictures here.

[Gary B.]

Re: C2 Rear Spring Findings

Alan,

When you say

"The gray Ionoklad was always seen on the top of each leaf. The edges all showed the gray.
The bottom of the top most 5 leafs (5-9) all had a 85-95% coverage of gray also. The lower tops (2-4)showed only traces of gray with gray always noticable at the center bolt hole."

it's hard to know what you mean by top and bottom. Do you have the spring oriented the same way it would be in the car? Or is it sitting "upside down" on the floor with the middle touching the floor and the ends up?

In any case, I've seen variable coverage of the gray paint, with more paint than one would expect if the vendor only painted the tension side as the GM specs called out, i.e., I've seen the sides typically covered with paint and the compression side also has variable paint coverage. I suspect some worker simply slopped on the paint pretty quickly and it didn't matter if he covered more than the tension side with paint.

I recall someone else with a '64 who said he had a one-stage spring that may have been a left over from '63. Someone needs to do a survey of Bowtie '64's to determine the incidence of one-stage springs.

Gary

[Alan Drake]

Re: C2 Rear Spring Findings

Spring sitting as normally seen on car, ie two ends sitting on ground with small leaf #9 on top.

OK, what is a one-stage spring?

[Gary B.]

Re: C2 Rear Spring Findings

Alan,

A one-stage spring is one where all the leaves are arched. According to my research, the '63 9-leaf spring was a one-stage spring, but starting in '64 they went to a 2-stage spring, with leaves 1-6 arched and 7-9 straight. But like I said, I've heard of at least one other '64 owner who said he had an original 1-stage spring.

Gary

[Alan Drake]

2 stage, 7,8,9 straight *NM*

[Wayne M.]

More specific on location of "GLS" stamping

please, as I'd like to find this on what I believe is an original Jan '64 2-stage spring assembly. Like on the edge ?, distance from one end ? A cursory examination shows nothing.

TIA.

[Alan Drake]

Re: Location of "GLS" stamping

Wayne,

The GLS embossing is on leaf #4 (bottom #1 hasholes for retainers).
From the spring end it is between 7 1/4 - 8 1/4 inches
From center hole is is 8 1/2 - 9 1/2. No 4 leaf from same center hole is 16 5/8.

The embossing is on the edge only and only at one spot.
Restorer, spring 2004, article by Beaupre/Lucia show similar embossing but letters are GMU or GM-U. Have sent picture to Joe Lucia, however no answer exists what the heck the GLS is.

The car is a Mar 64 FI.

[Gary B.]

Meaning of GMU * GLS

Alan,

I won't speak for Joe, but I don't know the meaning of GMU or GLS.

Gary

[John H.]

Re: Meaning of GMU * GLS

I'm sure Franz would know off the top of his head, but I'd guess that "GLS" is Great Lakes Steel; they may have been the supplier of the raw strip stock, and were close to the two original spring manufacturing sites.

[Gary B.]

Spring steel

As an aside, the spring on my garage door broke yesterday, after 12 years of everyday use. The garage door company says the spring steel they use is not as good as it used to be and all the good spring steel is "sold overseas". Maybe he meant to say all the bad spring steel is made overseas and sold in the US???

Gary

[Joe L.]

Re: Meaning of GMU * GLS

John------

I've spoken with Franz about this in the past. He says that the markings were definitely not added by Ontario Steel Products or Rockwell. He went on to say, as I recall, that the markings were not specified on the Chevrolet specifications and drawings and that OSP would not have put them there without specific instruction to do so.

I could not figure out what the "GMU", which is also seen on the edge of one leaf of my original spring, referred to. I just assumed that the "GM" part of it referred to General Motors. When Alan's "GLS" was reported, the only thing that I could think of would be that the "LS" part of it referred to Chevrolet LIVONIA SPRING, the alternate source for these springs.

However, I think that you've got it with the "Great Lakes Steel". That would explain everything. Thinking about it now, there really would be no way that this sort of raised character embossment could have been done at the spring manufacturing plant. It's much more likley that it was there on the steel stock used to make the springs and identified the supplier of that stock. The "GMU" might be another supplier of spring steel stock. Now, we just have to figure out who that might have been. Knowing that it's likely the manufacturer of the spring stock does point us in the right direction, though.

[John H.]

Re: Meaning of GMU * GLS

Joe -

I think engineering logic would dictate that any stamped or embossed raw material manufacturer logo on raw spring steel strip stock would be on the edge as noted, vs. being on either the compression or tension surface of the strip, as that could create a stress riser.