Correct finish for leaf spring

[Nel]

Hi, what would be the correct finish for the leaf spring and all the hardware for a 70 Challenger A66 convertible.  I have seen them bare or black.
Also what about any inspection marks?

[pschlosser]

From my experience, factory-accurate leaf springs are bare metal.  Some may choose to paint them black, and I once made the mistake of sand blasting some leaf spring assemblies to clean them up prior to paint.  But they made noise after doing this, presumably from the embedded media (sand) that worked its way in between the leaf springs.  It's been years and they still squeak.  I suspect I would have to disassemble them to resolve this.

[Nel]

In Paul Herd book, he says all e bodies leaf spring where semi gloss black and in Jim Schild book he says they where all natural with the clamp zinc coated.

Just don't know what to think.

[RUNCHARGER]

My understanding is that they could come both ways. It probably was a two vendor thing being the reason. Any original car I have personally owned had heavy black, around 70% gloss paint with runs.