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9/7/19: Over the last couple of weeks, I have been cleaning, painting and waiting for parts to arrive to get my front end back together. I started prepping the springs for paint and reassembly. After making a weld repair on the drivers side spring clamp, I used my (garage sale find) railroad track as the anvil, a ball peen hammer and a rivet I made on my lathe, to re-riveted the clamp on to the spring.

To clean up the springs, I used a wire cup on my side grinder to remove the grime and rust then ground out the ridges left behind by adjacent springs. This was a time consuming task requiring about two hours for just the passengers side assembly. A bit of wax and grease remover and a nice coat of my favorite rattle can paint, and that set was ready for reassembly. I was burnt out with wire brushing and grinding so I left the drivers side for another day.

Next on my list was the loose spring mount. I first secured the mount tight to the frame using 3/8” bolts and bolts. On the first hole, I tried using progressive drills in slow speed. Starting about a 32nd of an inch larger and working up, but the bits would only dig in and stop the drill. If I ran it at high speed with light pressure it would drill but then start to chatter. A trick I used as a machinist was to flatten the cutting edge of the bit slightly by either grinding or using a a small stone (so it scrapes rather then cuts). This would stop the bit from digging in, especially in soft materials like brass or copper but would also work on soft steel. Not having any sacrificial bits like I did when I was working and I not wanting to have to resharpen numerous bits, I decided to try to enlarge the holes using just the reamer. This worked out nicely, fairly easy to drill and left very clean holes. I had previously bought grade 5, 1/2”-20 x 2” shoulder bolts, nuts and lock washers figuring on cutting the length to fit. Although the reamed holes were to size, the bolts measured undersize by about .002”, so I added some Loctite 660 to fill the gap.

This may spark a conversation on rivets vs bolts. The tensile strength of a single 1/2”x20 grade 5 bolt is 19,200 lbs. and there are four of these bolts in two different planes. I don’t think it will ever pose a problem. I will however check the torque on these bolts on a regular basis. They say hindsight is 20-20. If I had to do it again, I would buy a .010” undersized reamer and size the bolts on the lathe to fit.