Those springs are not rusted beyond use but the fact they had extended shackles in the rear suggests the metal is worn out. All metal have a life expectancy.
It is often found that the passenger side has an extra leaf to balance the rear end & car under hard acceleration to keep the car going straight. This is often a normal occurrence with this set up but not every car received 4/5 spring split.
The old MoPar Super Stock springs are biased in this fashion with the number of leafs increasing for heavier cars. Currently, I do not recommend the S/S springs for daily drivers though they can be used as such.
S/S springs have a large arc to them for big/tall tire clearance. They move the rear end of the car up a lot for this. There a bit stiff for what I’d call a comfortable daily driver ride.
One spring is always longer than the other in springs designed to do their job properly and even more so under more power than a stock engine. This should be ignored as when the car rests on the springs, there lengths are changed and set properly.
Leaf spring clamps are so set at there points in order to stiffen the front segment as well as help keeping the spring leafs together. The clamp placement was factory engineered.
IMO, abodyjoe gave the best advice for anything from a daily driver & long term usage to a pretty darn hot driver. I myself have used springs from espo.com a couple of times. They’re an excellent quality spring that will hold a OEM engines power and ride very well for years. I have a set in use for over 18 years now.
Again, I do not recommend re-arcing the spring due to metal fatigue and the properly operating spring performance that has gone through its cycles.
I do very much recommend a new set of springs and hardware to replace what you have now. Espo springs are IMO an excellent choice in which I highly recommend.
Contact espo and have a chat with them and tell them exactly what you have and what you’re looking for from the spring. If it’s just a replacement or a high performance spring, stock height or an inch lower or higher, they end it for you, no problem.
New springs and shipping is a bit expensive but ever so worth every penny in the end and down the road after years of use, you’ll forget the price you paid by the time you need new springs.
By which time you’ll probably need a hard bag on the spring price.
