Coil spring tape/tag location

[Gary B.]

[Jeff P.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

I installed these exactly where the originals were. 0792CF07-24B4-4095-A81B-0EBA30DD7744.jpg7FE9E32D-0E4A-4CC1-A1E1-1CC5EF618D3B.jpg

[Gary B.]

[Jeff P.]

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[Thomas N.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Gary:
My research indicates that:
The front springs on all small blocks and big blocks (except F41) are progressively wound. One end of the spring will have a tighter spacing between the coils. On original springs, there is a small dimple on the end that has the more open coil spacing. This small dimple, open coil spacing is mounted into the lower A-Arm. The heavy duty suspension (F41) has straight pitch wound coils. With these springs there is no up/down orientation.
The tag is installed 5 coils up from the open coil spacing end, and is orientated 90 degrees from the end. The tag is wrapped around the coil diameter, and the tail of the tag is facing in the center of the coil. With this approach, during installation, the tag will face forward on the left hand spring, and will face rearward on the right hand spring.
Spring Tags.jpg

[Rick B.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Thom, Yep that's what my C2 unrestoreds are showing as well. C3's I can't speak to per Jeff's post.

[Gary B.]

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[Thomas N.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Yes, they stick inward and downward, probably due to gravity effects.
When you put these on, it is real easy to put these on backwards. Buy two sets, they are cheap enough.
You can buy scrapbooking shears to cut the smaller serrations in place once installed. I'll almost guarantee you, you will not get the serrations to line up exactly when you install them.

[Gary B.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Tom,

Instead of pinking shears, I used my Scotch brand tape dispenser cutting edge, which produces an appropriately fine cut edge. I know of no pinking shears that have enough teeth per inch.

I agree about not having the ends match up. My plan is not to have the two ends meet up perfectly when I wrap the tape around the coil, since there is no way perfectly matched ends happened with any regularity on the production line.

Gary
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[Thomas N.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Gary:
I highly doubt that they were installed by hand at the spring manufacturer, the way we do it with singulated label stock we buy from our restoration vendors. What I envision is they used some sort of machine/dispenser to install these, very similar to the bag wrapper enclosed, but sized to fit between the coils. They would push the wrapping tool in between the spring wires and it would wrap and then cut the continuous roll of label material. And this is probably why the tail is inward toward the coil spring. The labels I've seen line up real nice, and the serrations are exactly the same on both, indication that it was cut after being applied.


Bag Taper.pdf

[Gary B.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Tom,


It finally struck me tonight that I probably still have the original standard, 12-coil, progressive rate springs (GM # 3851100) from my ‘66 L79. Tonight I also reread a posting I made back in March of 2012 in which I noted that my original springs still had the tags on them. I had completely forgotten that fact, So I went out to my garage tonight and lo and behold I found my springs and one of them does indeed still have its ID tag (attached to the 5th coil from the bottom, which is to the left in the first photo). Some photos are attached. First of all, you can make out the very fine zig-zag cut at the ends of the tag, indicative of an original tag, presuming the condition of the tag wasn’t enough by itself to convince someone of its originality. In any case, knowing the full owner history of the car as I do, I know the spring and tag are original.


Your description of a machine that would match up the tag ends and make a single cut of the adhered tape ends is not consistent with what my tag shows. The two ends of my tag don’t match up by at least one inch. And in the width direction the ends are offset by about one third of the width of the tag. The tape end that extends one inch past the other end was folded back onto the shorter end. It’s very unlikely this was tag was attached to the coil by a machine. I believe the simpler hypothesis is that at least this tag was quickly and crudely put on by hand, with ends pre-cut.


Gary
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[Thomas N.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

Those are different than what I've seen, but makes sense. Maybe they had a 1" wide scotch tape type dispenser, with the label stock in the dispenser, and they pulled off/tore off what they need, and then applied by hand. That way they didn't need to worry about a paper backing to pull off. Thanks for the pics. And as you found out the serrations are very close to if not the same as you modern day tape dispenser.

[Gary B.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

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[Gary B.]

Re: Coil spring tape/tag location

?.. Maybe they had a 1" wide scotch tape type dispenser, with the label stock in the dispenser, and they pulled off/tore off what they need, and then applied by hand. That way they didn't need to worry about a paper backing to pull off...

Tom,

As you suggest, I think they must have had the label stock (with no protective backing) on a spool dispenser, with a cutter, like a scotch tape dispenser. No way would they have had the time to remove a protective backing on each tag. How many centuries of collective time has mankind spent trying to remove the backing from double stick tape???

Gary

[Gary B.]

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