Need advice with painting leaf springs

I need to repaint my new Wheelers progressive AAL leafs as they arrived moderately gouged from shipment and my attempt to touch up the bare spots went badly because the fresh coat of paint blistered.

I suspect this may have been due to too much relative humidity.

At this point, I'm thinking that I'm probably best off stripping them to metal and repainting them.

Should I take the leaf packs apart, strip them to bare metal and then repaint them with something like krylon rust tough flat enamel paint, waiting a week or so for cure before sticking them back together? Or should I use something like a graphite based paint specific for leafs on them?

Although it may be easier to buy an

 

I just I got an old set of OME springs installed. I picked them up used, prior owner had had them warrantied bc of paint failure. They don't look too bad but I'm going to keep them covered with fluid film to be safe

 

I'm not sure fluid film is a good idea for leaf springs as it will attract dirt between the leaves, which will lead to friction and noise making it sound like matress springs on prom night.

In my case I tore the leaf packs apart and am repainting them giving each pack a week to fully cure and likely some time in the sun before a good wet sand and slapping em together.

 

Is there a paint specific for leaf springs? Other than a baked on Teflon coating? I just finished my 63s in an epoxy paint, but it would be great if there were some kind of low friction/wear resistant coating specifically for leaf springs.

 

I've read of some people using the graphite infused slip plate paint, although that is likely overkill in my use.
I'm just going to give it a spritz of dri-film on the nylon pads

 

Wish I would have seen that stuff before I painted these! Maybe when it wears off.

 

I just use regular old flat black, the cheap stuff every time is see bare spots. I would recommend you upgrade the pads to these, they are just a little thicker than the stock OME ones. No more squeaks after these were installed.


https://amzn.to/3XmLbvv

 

Op.. If it blistered did you prep good to get oily residue off for good adhesion? As far as squeeks have had Icon rxt leaf pack on for 3 years now and haven't heard a noise yet. Not sure if it's related but on the leaf's, coilovers, etc i use Boeshield T-9... less greasy and doesn't attract dust/dirt as much. It's clear and drys to more of a wax compared to Fluid Film.

 

I was using krylon rust tough semi flat enamel, which IIRC states wait 1 minutes between coats, recoating within 1 hour or after 24 hours.

I waited 24 hours after applying 2 coats 1 light 1 med, wet sanded then waited an additional 24 hours before applying another final coat.

That final coat however started to blister after about 3 mins which makes me think that the original cost from 48 hours prior had only dried on the surface layer and the most recent coat was causing the uncured paint to offgas and blister. Weather was around 80f , maybe 45% humidity.

I've also had problems with krylon rust tough being soft several days after application. For example I painted my rear diff skid with it, set that down on a textured surface after 72 hours, picked it back up 24 hours to find that the surface texture had transferred into the surface of the painted object, ruining the finish. (Although in that case I had 3 light coats then 2 med spaced a little over 1 min apart)