08-26-2009, 06:47 PM
Of course you could make reasonable looking springs by winding fine copper wire around a piece of wire close to the size of the spring you need. In your case you don't need the spring to be a working spring so this would work for you. I've made springs out of .007" spring steel wound around a .015" mandrel for some of my trolley poles but these are working springs and something you wouldn't need for the junkyard cars you want to detail. All you would need is some stranded copper wire to provide you with the materials to turn out hundreds of non-working springs at a fraction of the cost of the jewelry clasps you are scavenging the springs out of now.