VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 powder coat leaf springs & nails in frt. door post

I have a 29 that I am restoring. Two questions that I need some advice on.
When I drop the leaf springs is it best to powder coat them or to blast them and have them painted? In either case is it adviseable to pull the springs apart layer by layer in order to get good coverage or should they simply be replace? In either case what it the best way to handle them? Question #2: The post's on the front door posts have the nails that were leaded into the metal. What is the best way to remove those nails? Do they need to be drilled out or can they be coerced through heat? What was the process used to cover those nails up? Was it lead or otherwise?
Thanks for your input.
(Waiting for membership to kick in)

Personally, powder coating is too modern, even for my tastes. I would just clean and repaint. I would also disassemble the leafs and do them individually. I have disassembled leafs in the past and it is not a big deal.

As for the nails under lead, I have no experience there, but keep in mind that there is wood under them there metal. If you choose heat, be very very careful.

If you do paint the leaf springs be sure to add a flex additive to the paint so that the paint doesn't crack when the springs flex up and down.

Thanks for your input. That is probably what I will do with the springs.
The wood in the post's is so rooten I pulled the metal off without having to worry about the nails. Now it is a matter of removing the nails.

I have had individual spring leaves powder coated. Works well as the powder coating is really tough and takes a while to wear down. Paint takes a few seconds to wear away in the areas where the springs touch. Then a little water and you have ugly red rust oozing from the springs. To keep the red plaque away you must oil the springs and then they get dirty faster.

I recently blasted the leaves on the front spring of my other pre-war car, painted them and coated them with a graphite/paint spray I bought at my local John Deer dealer. I drove it in the rain for about 700 miles this weekend, and so far the leaves seem to be rust-free and still slick. Another remedy is to grease the leaves and cover them with leather to keep most of the moisture out.

You certainly can powder coat them. I manage a fab shop and we powder coat in house. I have also conducted wear tests on powder coating. If you powder coat them I would suggest that you use a teflon impregnated powder some call it high slip powder. Certainly you would want to sand blast or media blast them first and make sure your coater has a iron phoshate line. The high slip powder is available from TCI Powder Coatings and other manufacturers and is offered in a medium gloss.

I have coated many parts on my cars, some on classic cars some on my every day cars to see how it holds up.

Ref question #2: Had the same thing on my 29, I just put the molding on something solid, but open under the nail head, and hammered the nail back out. The lead breaks out. Even if the nail breaks off short, hammer on whats left enough to break the lead loose, then finish the job using a small drift punch. When you nail the molding back on just fill the hole where the lead was with bondo or glaze. If you are real critical, re-sand the filled spot after you primer it, even though the spot is sanded smooth, the filler seems to absorb the primer and swell just a little bit. On mine, when the finish paint was applied, the filled spots show just a little, if you look real close for them.

Thanks. Very helpful information.