A rolling time warp; was Re: <VV> Purchased an NOS Corvair Delco Model 556 Battery

[Tony Underwood]

At 06:58 hours 12/08/2005, Joe West wrote:
>hehe...
>
>My plan is to use it and when it finally dies, I'll drain it, clean it out
>on the inside with baking soda and use it for show.



I've seen people in another marque organization take an old 
(defective but cosmetically good) original factory supplied battery 
and gut it, leaving only the empty case, not even posts/terminals, 
and fit another slightly smaller but similarly configured battery 
inside, with its posts sticking up through the original battery 
case.   It took a little finagling but somebody did this with a new 
slightly smaller battery with the posts in the same spots, or close 
enough at least to fit through the holes in the old battery case 
where the original posts were located.   With a couple of those red 
and green felt "absorbent disks" under the posts to hide a slightly 
elongated hole, no body's the wiser.

Either way, the "battery" started the car while looking just like the 
original which was long since a distant memory.   The one I saw was 
so nicely done I found it hard to believe it wasn't one of those 
megabucks reproduction show car batteries... until the guy showed me 
by popping off one of the filler caps which showed a warranty label 
underneath, on the top of the modern battery hidden under the old case.

Obviously it goes without saying that doing something like this with 
a type 53 or other early Vair battery is not gonna be so easy unless 
you perhaps wire up something like a booster/jumper battery from one 
of those emergency starter packs into an existing cosmetically good 
but long since expired and gutted early Vair Delco battery.   A labor 
of love, no doubt.

Now, an ancient late model Delco battery could be tricked up in such 
a manner without much trouble... or at least not as much trouble as 
doing an early battery.


tony..