Swingin' '73 Dart
Thanks Sneke_eyez!
I went up to the furniture upholstery shop Friday AM to get the springs. They were able to make the side springs, but not the seat spring. They were not able to make the bends as sharp. Actually, the guy had a really hard time bending the springs to the shape that MoPar did in the first place. At any rate, they are better than the broken ones!
New springs beside pieces of the old one. They charged me $20 for the pair, and I think that was probably cheep!
New spring in place.
I installed the new springs with the old clips. I moved one of the un-broken seat springs from the passenger's side to replace the broken one. I bent up a piece of chain-link fence tension wire to sister the broken spring and installed it temporarily with electrical tape, and then with a bunch of stainless-steel safety wire. Finally, I taped over the SS wire with more electrical tape after sticking an end in my hand and bleeding all over the spings.
Passenger side spring taking the place of the broken driver's side spring.
"Sister" made of chain-link tension wire. Held in place temporarily with 'lectric tape.
"Sister" safety-wired down and covered with 'lectric tape.
Another view.
This is obviously a temporary fix. I'm just trying to get the car road-worthy so I can drive it this summer. I'll be totally re-doing the interior sometime in the future.
I made new cross-spring braces using the tension wire, and tied each spring with twine. In all, I put 4 of these stiff cross braces in.
At the end of Friday, this is where I am.
I'm mostly taking the weekend off to hang with the wife, but we did go for a motorcycle ride to Fabric Depot where I picked up some burlap to go over the springs, and some smaller hog rings. I've added more cross braces using the small safety wire between the tension wire braces, and tied them to every-other spring. Finally, I did a preliminary scrubbing on the cover to clean it up so I can do some mending on it.
Thanks Sneke_eyez!
I went up to the furniture upholstery shop Friday AM to get the springs. They were able to make the side springs, but not the seat spring. They were not able to make the bends as sharp. Actually, the guy had a really hard time bending the springs to the shape that MoPar did in the first place. At any rate, they are better than the broken ones!
New springs beside pieces of the old one. They charged me $20 for the pair, and I think that was probably cheep!
New spring in place.
I installed the new springs with the old clips. I moved one of the un-broken seat springs from the passenger's side to replace the broken one. I bent up a piece of chain-link fence tension wire to sister the broken spring and installed it temporarily with electrical tape, and then with a bunch of stainless-steel safety wire. Finally, I taped over the SS wire with more electrical tape after sticking an end in my hand and bleeding all over the spings.
Passenger side spring taking the place of the broken driver's side spring.
"Sister" made of chain-link tension wire. Held in place temporarily with 'lectric tape.
"Sister" safety-wired down and covered with 'lectric tape.
Another view.
This is obviously a temporary fix. I'm just trying to get the car road-worthy so I can drive it this summer. I'll be totally re-doing the interior sometime in the future.
I made new cross-spring braces using the tension wire, and tied each spring with twine. In all, I put 4 of these stiff cross braces in.
At the end of Friday, this is where I am.
I'm mostly taking the weekend off to hang with the wife, but we did go for a motorcycle ride to Fabric Depot where I picked up some burlap to go over the springs, and some smaller hog rings. I've added more cross braces using the small safety wire between the tension wire braces, and tied them to every-other spring. Finally, I did a preliminary scrubbing on the cover to clean it up so I can do some mending on it.