I'm coming into the 4th year of my effort to restore the Golden Phantom. During that time I’ve battled cancer, and so far surviving. I also had open heart surgery and managed to squeak by on that as well. I seems that I take one step forward and two steps back at times. The frustrating part is I had hoped to do most of the work my self, but in actuality I’ve done very little. However, buck by buck, work is continuing, but about the time I think I have all the major expenses taken care of something new pops up.
In my last post I talked about the details on the underside being finished up. Well, I stopped by the other day to see how things were going. During my inspection while the truck was on the lift I saw they had cleaned up the springs, which had been caked with crud and rust. It was then I noticed a slight difference in the appearance of the rear springs. It looks like the left spring has been reworked along the way. Not that it concerned me much, but upon closer inspection I could see one of the leaves was broken.
I know I could probably get by with a repair to the broken one, but from past experience, I know two things. First is, that if I only fix the broken one there is a good chance that the truck won’t sit level. Second, maybe more importantly is with a truck this old, that has been worked as hard as this one was, the springs are certainly work hardened so that they don’t spring as much as they once did. Back when I was a truck mechanic in east Texas they called this being road sprung.
After thinking on it, I decided that since I plan on long trips (coast to coast someday) and given my propensity for taking the roads less traveled, I figured I best replace them. The last thing I would want to do is to get stranded on some lonely back road in the middle of nowhere with a broken spring. Grigg pointed me in the direction of Eaton Spring who has provided springs for other bolters. So it looks like the Phantom will be getting new springs along with everything else that has been fixed or replaced.
I suppose that this thread should be in the DITY fourm, but since I am not doing the work myself I'll stay here in panels and burbs.Thanks once more for the help and support from the other bolters. Your counsel is truly appreciated.
Last edited by The Ned; 12/21/2010 8:58 AM.
