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I thought I'd post a set up I worked out for spray painting springs that may come in handy. The springs on my garden tractor had a heavy, ugly, globby build up of paint when I got it and I came up with an idea to spread the spring coils open easily for spray painting. I'm sure one way is to hang them by a weight heavy enough to spread them open, but the set up I used allowed me to hold the spring at any angle as well as upside down to be able to paint every coil. After the old paint was stripped off the spring I cleaned it thoroughly and mounted it as shown.
![Green Circuit component Wood Engineering Wood stain]()
I drilled several holes in a length of 2 inch square aluminum tubing to accommodate the various springs I needed to paint and fastened 5/16" bolts to the tubing that were long enough to space the spring away from the tubing. ( A length of 2 X 2, or 2 X 4 would suffice just as well as the square tubing.) A turnbuckle was attached to the spring which made it easy to spread the spring coils. Once mounted I was able to hold the square tubing at any angle needed as well as upside down to paint each surface of the coils, inside and out. The portability of the set up was nice and allowed me to leave it out in the sun to dry or inside the shop if the weather wasn't favorable for painting. I left the spring spread open for several days and once the paint was fully cured, the spring was able to be opened and closed without any coils sticking together, and there was no globby paint between the coils.
![Green Circuit component Wood Gas Electronic engineering]()
I drilled several holes in a length of 2 inch square aluminum tubing to accommodate the various springs I needed to paint and fastened 5/16" bolts to the tubing that were long enough to space the spring away from the tubing. ( A length of 2 X 2, or 2 X 4 would suffice just as well as the square tubing.) A turnbuckle was attached to the spring which made it easy to spread the spring coils. Once mounted I was able to hold the square tubing at any angle needed as well as upside down to paint each surface of the coils, inside and out. The portability of the set up was nice and allowed me to leave it out in the sun to dry or inside the shop if the weather wasn't favorable for painting. I left the spring spread open for several days and once the paint was fully cured, the spring was able to be opened and closed without any coils sticking together, and there was no globby paint between the coils.
