Will the spring on the VRC series antenna base rust? - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

reallybigboat · 04-22-2009, 23:47

I know this forum knows....

I just took delivery of three NOS VRC antennas from the guy on eBay from Israel. They are NOS, by the way, complete with hardware, manuals, gasket, tie-down kit, etc. And, delivery to my door was in five days from Israel. Not too bad at all!

My question is does the spring rust? I can't tell if it is bare steel or has some coating. I am inclined to paint the spring while these are new, to avoid rusting once installed on the vehicle which remains outside 24 x 7.

I realize it will be impossible to paint inside the spring and between the coils, but something has to better than nothing...unless of course, the spring does not develop rust over time.

Has anyone painted their spring? If not, how bad does it rust?

Thanks!

EZFEED · 04-23-2009, 00:24

POR-15 will work and will remain flexible. Just brush it up and remove as much of the old coating as possible then clamp it in a vice and flex the spring in all directions to open the coils and dab POR-15 inside it, ouside it, and between the coils. One thing to be careful of is to make sure the compound does not dry hard and make the coils stick together. The way to do this is to wait till it dries tacky then periodically wiggle and flex it around and hold it bent over in various positions to allow the material to dry in between the coils. While it is tacky and you are doing this you can dust it with CARC or some OD paint. The paint will stick to the tacky POR-15 and provide a barrier between the coat of POR-15 on the coils. Keep flexing it not allowing it to dry in any one position (heat gun speeds this up) and get a good topcoat of OD green over the drying POR-15 coat. I have done this to all of my antenna springs and 4 years to date there are NO traces of rust or areas where the coating has been compromised.
This stuff lasts and WILL NOT EVER come off or allow rust to start. You will scratch off the OD topcoat and not the POR-15 undercoat.

You will only need a pint of POR-15 to do a spring with leftovers. Use a disposable 1" brush and be sure to thoroughly clean the spring with naval jelly and rinse in paint thinner. Sandblast if possible.

Check it out.
www.por15.com

reallybigboat · 04-23-2009, 00:33

Wow EZFEED!

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. 'sounds like a great plan to me, even though it will delay the installation, I will give it a try.

Thank you very much!

EZFEED · 04-23-2009, 03:36

No problem bud, the milspec coating they have originally is pretty good actually and just needs a little shot of WD-40 now and then. If they're bad its time to coat them, metal to metal wear tends to do that.

Mine were horrible......nothing as nice as yours. In fact every time it'd rain they would leave the dreaded brown streaks on my body panels. I sealed mine out with POR-15 and to this day have zero problems. The hardest part is just making sure the coils dont stick together.

Yours look pretty nice actually, you might be able to get by with just keeping them oiled up?