oh well.... I've never heard the no painting springs thing. Every truck I've had got all the suspension and chassis painted.... lol.

 

I painted my springs with POR-15...top, bottom, and sides. I could tell no noticable difference.

 

If they are rusty, just use rust converter on them, or if you must paint, use a thinned paint with a brush and just do the edges and the bottom of the leafs that are exposed, staying back ~ 1 1/2" from the ends of the next smaller leaf. You would be surprised at how warm the spring stack gets from the friction of the leafs sliding over each other. Before there was HMW plastic strips or buttons, we would put window screen strips packed with heavy grease between the leafs (especially on the typical cupid's bow shaped cross springs Ford used on the earlier chassis), then wrap them with electrical tape to keep the dirt out. You would have to redo it about yearly when the tape would start deteriorating.

 

Posie's told me not to paint my new springs until I had them installed with the wheels on the ground. Then I used a light spray coat of black Rustoleum taking care not to spray between the spring leaves.