Projects Battery Hold Down?

After you get the battery fastened down you may want one of these;

https://www.pepboys.com/product/details/406051/00151

 

my big red truck has been stored 16 years and covered with dust, lots of dust, will I have to wash it before I wax it, I REALLY WANT it to look good.. please help me,its my first time dealing with this much dust, and will my friends like it?

I will have more questions as dementia sets in.......

 

Water hose does wonders...

Pressure washer is next level...

 

I guess it's hard to read sarcasm lol. The driving around part was meant as a joke. I did limp it home at the time I first brought it home before it was built and that was just down the Block from where I parked the trailer. Other than that I didn't drive it until I secured it with a marine box and some angle iron.

 

IF.....you gotta ask about securing a battery, makes me wonder what the rest of the car is like.....sometimes,.....really?

 

Phttttttt as long as its just the head its not an issue, now if it took your shoulder out or mashed your hand that would be serious.

Well Duh, you find a bull, grab onto the hose, and an spray the piss out of it.

(new pain pills, daaaaaaammmmmnnn)

 

Remember to use thick fender washers or metal stiffeners under floor to decrease the chance of bolts pulling thru, just in case. Additional stability can be achieved by tracing the battery bottom on a piece of plywood and cutting it out for the Bat to set down in.

Before the internet, we would go to places where people took their cars, look at everything, and get ideas (or options, really) about how to solve these problems. Often ideas came after seeing "how not to do it". Creative thinkers and doers rose to the top of the game and elevated the level of rodding fabrication. The bonus was meeting people who were doing what we enjoyed.

Now that we are here, show us some pics of what you came up with.

 

Regardless of your approach, what always creeps me out is using a metal strap / angle / top perimeter frame to hold the battery down if it runs too close to the battery posts. Call me paranoid (I heard that) but I'm always a tiny bit worried about shorting the battery leads when all that metal junk is so close to the terminal posts, especially if I have to use jumper cables. If you can put the terminals on the opposite side of the frame, that's great. If not, I like using newer (non-vintage) batteries with side terminals and simple straps over the top - the hold down is that extra bit further away from the side posts. Don't forget to vent the box. Gary

 

I've always used an old leather belt too. Easy to come by, infinitely adjustable, non-conducting, and looks traditional, bro...

 

Batteries should be vented to outside air, they emit hydrogen gas as they are being charged, that gas is highly volatile. Even if you mount the battery in a marine case, if your mounting it in your trunk it should be vented to outside the car.

 

This style of hold down has been in my car for about 45 years.
It has 2x2 plates underneath the trunk floor as well.
Not sure how you would vent it, unless they make vent caps.

Routing the cable safely could be a bigger issue.

Good luck..

 

looks like an early 1970s Ford hold down, eh? Don't see them around much any more.

 

Louver the trunk lid...

 

Boss 429.........no to the louvers.

 

And it doesn't have to be fugly. I don't have a pic with me but I made mine out of an old Samsonite lady's make up case I found on-line. Cool little brown leather job with br*** latches, still has a princess cruise tag on it. I stripped the inners (left the mirror on the inside of the lid for fun), lined it with that metallic self adhesive heat shielding, cut down a battery mat for the bottom and glued it in, drilled the bottom to mount to the floor of the trunk and for a plastic vent tube, cut holes in the back for the cables (cant see the back when you open the trunk), used a side-post yellow Optima, secured the battery with a simple hold down that attaches to the bottom (to prevent the battery from moving inside the box), and added a couple of vintage U.S. travel stickers to the outside. Works great and just looks like someone left their suitcase in the trunk.

I found all sorts of boxes on-line that would work like a radio tube repairman service box (really liked that one but too big for my little trunk). Be creative - but above all, be safe.

 

I used a Speedway Afco box in my Ford. Cut the flanges off and mounted it with big washers and bumper style bolts.

 

And the H.A.M.B. now has one more member devoid of Common sense and he's willing to admit it. He'll make a grate politician.
The Wizzard

 

Admitting you have a problem is the first step in finding a good bar to drink in.

 

How exactly are you venting these? I have a 37 Chevy sedan with a trunk mounted battery in a marine plastic box. There's no venting there, but I don't see any good way to add one either.

 

Ammo boxes usually have a seal around the lid. Vent the entire box to the outside. Use hold down bolts thru the trunk floor as others have stated.

 

I'm not venting one, because I don't have one mounted in a trunk or plastic box, but if I did I would fasten some tubing to the top of the box and run it out thru the floor of the trunk so the air draft pulls the fumes out of the box in the same way that a pre-PCV draft tube vents an engine. Personally, I wouldn't just mount the battery in an enclosed space, like a trunk, without venting it somehow. Batteries can, and occasionally do explode, and it can be quite a mess. If you don't want to louvcr your trunk lid, that's OK, it might just louvre itself one day.

I remember a funny story of a friend who had an econoline van back during the van craze in the mid 70's. They have the battery under the drivers seat. He was tooling along one day and the battery exploded, the battery cover held, but he felt it through the seat, scared the **** out of him!

 

I learned from installing a Taylor aluminum box in my 442 that the vent tube needs to be located near the top of the cabinet and routed outside the vehicle. A plastic tube about 3/8ths diameter ran through a hole in the back of the cabinet, through a wiring grommet, then down through another grommet in the trunk floor. I prefer running it down the inside of the box so you don't see the tube or the extra hole in the floor of the trunk.

 

My brother had one shift on him, welded the positive post to the inner fender, melted the top of the battery. He's lucky the entire harness didn't fry before he got it disconnected.

 

Have 3 trunk mounted batteries in marine type boxes. All are sitting in a frame made from bed rail. Vented on the back side, out of sight with a 90 degree rubber spark plug boot and a hose thru a hole in the floor. Hole drilled in the box top, all secured with seat belts. Been in service MANY years, never an issue.

 

Thanks. I was thinking that hydrogen would rise, so venting up would be needed. But a draft tube through the floor would look a lot better. Adding to my spring "to do" list...

 

$23
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/aaf-all76100

 

for a Gm style battery with the foot on it I use a battery tray for a 1979-83 malibu http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1055214,parttype,11671 and the locking wedge,
but for tight spots is a summit battery box http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g1231/overview/ as its sealed and you can vent it to the out side and its race legal remember the bolts for a battery tie down to be race legal is 3/8 dia I use all thread double nutted and tackwelded on the bottom with a wide plate under the sheet metal to spread the pull out force .

 

That's what I call an ARROW!

 

Well I'll be using a repro style cooler bolted to the trunk floor and vented, probably hidden with grommets etc. Venting isn't just for political commentary anymore.

 

Ford used a metal battery box in the Model T's mounted under the floor. Lang's sells new reproductions of them. Bob