Lou:
I don’t have much experience with torsion bars other than that a 2-year old bar broke on my ’61 Valiant—my first new car. As a corrosion engineer, I noted that the coating had been nicked and the salt of Omaha streets had worked on the exposed steel and allowed a crack to start. Nice thing about torsion bars is that the ends just slid out and enabled the Valiant putt on down to the Chrysler dealer for a warranty replacement.
If I were to restore a torsion bar, I’d have it sandblasted, polish out any nicks or cracks, have it Magnafluxed for cracks, spray it with zinc-rich primer and follow with a coating of POR-15 or something similar. The zinc in the primer will give you some protection against future nicking of the coating. You could also have the sandblasted and inspected bar lightly galvanized and then powdercoat it. That would provide excellent corrosion protection which you may or may not need—depending on your planned use of the car.
The opinions of others more experienced is welcome.
Rich Barber
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 20:28:39 -0500
From: Lou Vecchioni <email4lou@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Torsion bar re-coating/paint dip, or powder coat??
I've been perusing the fwlk and imperial web board, googling, etc, and I can't find anything that helps me decide whether or not the original style thick paint is better than powder coating (or even if powder coating can withstand the twisting stress).
I have my torsion bars off and will be wiping them down and inspecting for chips and rust this weekend. Next week or so I will be sending off various front suspension pieces to be media blasted and powder coated....but I'm unsure what to do with the torsion bars. Can they be blasted and treated the same way?
Thanks,
Lou
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