Red Hot Metalurgy

[Guest Anonymous]

would it be bad to heat up one end of whatever kind of metal the ST's were made of to the point of bendability?

Thank you to whomever answers my magical metalurgical question,

Elliot (aka Positive Understeer Man)

[Guest Anonymous]

most likely, heating would be bad. the metal could lose it's temper and become brittle.

[Guest Anonymous]

I have a book "Chassis Engineering", by Herb Adams, which is by no means an authoritative metallurgical text, but is well regarded as a practical book on basic racing technology. One chapter in this book describes the procedure for cutting springs. Herb says it's OK to heat them and bend them, but you MUST let them air-cool at a normal rate. Try not to heat up too large an area--just enough to let you bend the end, and don't heat it hotter than cherry red. Once it is bent, let it cool naturally. If you plunge it into water or oil, you will make the hot spot brittle and prone to cracking. If you heat the whole spring up, it might lose its temper and take a set once it is under load.

[Guest Anonymous]

i guess you have never cut springs before and noticed that they don't quit sit right...

[Guest Anonymous]

The trick to bending down the end of a cut coil spring is to have it under load when you heat it!

When there's a force applied to it, it takes very little heat to have the coil end take a new "set".

What I have done is clamp the last two coils flat in a vice, and just used a MAPP gas torch the right spot of the last coil to get it to move. Practise with some old springs until you learn how to shim up the coils to get the correct angle, if you wanna get it perfect.

This only takes a little heat, just barely enough to bubble the paint. Keep the heat just where the bend will be needed. I've seen advice that said "heat until cherry red and press it down against the floor" which will ruin the spring & give very little control over the results.

// John