Having used Denso tape for its intended purpose I can confirm that it's a messy business. That's a lot of work to protect the springs - are they that vulnerable? Any more so than everything around them?
Hi Howard,
It is the sort of job that is quite straightforward provided it is done before the springs are fitted. The tape did not have a lot of excess grease and the spring was held in a Workmate, so I (and everything else) remained clean.
In part, I wanted to protect two new (rare) original springs, complete with their stencilling. Though they are not more vulnerable than exhaust, shocks and brakes, those are readily available and less subject to variation from their original Lancia specifications. I also had some experience from refurbishing my original springs in the 1990s. On removal, they practically fell off the car. After removing the rust and replacing some of the separating strips their curvature increased and I needed to use a spring spreader to replace them. However, despite painting them, within a few years they were looking rusty again.
This has prompted me to measure the old springs (finally replaced at 52 years and >200,000 miles) and compare them with the NOS springs. The results are surprising. The old springs have retained their curvature since their restoration and are actually more curved (and probably thinner, because of the loss of rust) than the NOS items. It would be interesting to measure their spring rates, but the NOS items certainly provide more information and confidence in the rear wheels on the road.
Glyn
