ianshoots

So I got a used pair os SAWS form JBoy, and now that I am un-employed I am goiing to rebuild them. I just have one anal little question for those of you who have these; any idead what the red-coating on the coils is, and is there a good material for touching it up ?

WATRD

Enamel paint does a pretty fair job of patching it up, but color matching will be a chore.

ianshoots

They pretty easy to haul along since they'r eoff the truck, maybemI could just take 'e, to a paint store...

User 051420

They're gonna get scratched from road debris anyways...just let em do it. But yes, a paint store should be able to match the color. Aren't they p-coated?

Bling Bling. Good Riddance.

ianshoots

It does seem like a plastic coating, thats what I was sort of asking about in the first place. Its not so much the scratching, but its peeling off at the bottom of the coil. I imagine it helps keep the rusts off.

Gadget

It is powder coating.

I just sold my used set of SAWs and befor I shipped them I hit them with pressure washer and was very, VERY supprised that some of that powder coating blew off and showed the rusted spring underneath. It seems to me that it is a very cheap job of powder coating and it should not be coming off like that.

SAWs are a great shock assembly, but it seems they went cheap recently and farmed their spring work out to someone that is not doing a good job for them. The tops chew into the urathane spring bushing and chew it up.

Also the shock body had no anti corrision protection at all. It will rust way to easy making future adjustments very difficult. They need to seriously address that problem right away or advertise them for desert use only.

Rebuilding them is very easy to do, but you may want to touch base with SAW about the looks of them and see if they are whilling to do anything for you at all on that. Don't tell them you bought them from someone unless they ask you directly let them assume you are the original owner and you only had them for about a year to 18 months.

Gadget

ianshoots

Gadget, have you dealt with them directly? I'm sure its do-able, but since they don't sell direct, I wonder how hard they are to talk to. Guess I'll look into it.

Gadget

Yes. Call SAW and ask for Ryan. Tell him I told you to call and see what they can do for you. Hopefully they will be whilling to do something for you.

Gadget

boogyman

that's why it's a good idea to put antisieze grease on the thread body before you mount them on your truck. makes future adjustements really easy (not to mention preventing rust)

Russell

SloPoke

Yes, it's powder coating but the reason it comes off is that's it not really flexible. Due to the spring flexing, it peels.
I just got my SAW's back from SAW and they did a great job on the rebuild.

I also second the antiseize for the threaded body. The guy I bought these from didn't and when he removed em, you coudn't adjust em.

The only thing I have a ? on regarding the rebuild is that one of the heim joints is loose. No play in it but it moves freely whilst the other one is stiff like I'd suspect em to be. I cvalled Ryan at SAW and just so happens he was at SEMA so I sent an email. Still no respose as to why one heim is loose.

Anyways...SAW's are nice shocks but take some maintenace to keep up to par.

ianshoots

Hey Slo-Poke, how much did it set you back to have SAW do the rebuild for you? I have the kit coming, but I might save it for the next go-round if they are willing to work with as Gadget suggested.

spanks
IAn

SloPoke

SAW charged about 300 to do the rebuild and they took about a week.

They only reused: the threaded body, adjusting nut, botton mount (heim joint holder), and upper plate.
They replaced new: the spring, stem, poly bushings, bushing plate, heims, all the internals, and the threaded body cap.

ianshoots

Was this the first time you've had them serviced, or have you done the seals/oil change etc before? It could get costly to drop $300 on them every other year.

SloPoke

Yes, they had neer been serviced since new. They were about 3-4 years old and had many hard miles and many jumps on em. The adjusting nut was seized, the coils had peeled, the heims were totally blown (shattered actually), the threaded body showed signs of corrosion, the piston was pitted, and the poly bushings were blown as well. They were in bad shape!

I got them through a friend that SAS'd. They were on his Tacoma so when we took em off, I worked a deal with him for a trade. Deal was that he'd get em totally rebuilt and I'd I trade him for a brand new 100,000btu/hr natural gas fired Solaronics infra-red heater for his garage. I think we both made out well as the heater ran me bout 100 more than the rebuild (I rep the line).

ianshoots

Slo-Poke, sounds like your saws definitely needed the work. I don't think Jboy ran mine near that hard, they look pretty good, just a little peeling on the coils like I mentioned. Minor corrosion on the threads, but I don't think it will be a problem. My kit should get here in a day or two, looking forward to it.