Those of us who own wagons built back before sealed batteries tend to cringe when they open the hood and see that modern battery nestled among all the vintage bits carefully kept original. Well... years ago I had a 1972 numbers matching Mach 1 survivor which I owned and drove for 5 years. Loved that car but hated the sealed battery. After an oil change I saved the oil bottle caps and glued them onto the top of the battery in order to back-date the engine compartment. It helped, but wasn't totally original. But I felt better tho. Well, at the last swapmeet a buddy dropped by our booth and showed me a vintage battery case he was going to put into his Model A to hide the Interstate battery currently installed. The Model A, if you remember, has the battery under the damn floor and nobody but him will see it. So the disguise is actually just for him... but I liked the idea very much and remembered my Mach 1 trick. So, a quick browse through ebay turned up a set of vintage battery caps with Ford script molded into them. Bingo! I sanded off the stupid lawyer inspired warning labels molded to the top of the original cell breather caps and then glued the vintage caps to the top with "JB Weld". At a glance one doesn't even notice the original breather caps below and I feel better about the engine compartment.
they've been selling a plastic top for the sealed batteries for yrs . most mustang restoration shops sell them not perfect but
Good Idea Jairus I like you idea. It'll fool most people and cause young people to ask questions. Yes there are companies that actually sell old looking modern batteries for new looking over prices. My 55 Chevy wagon has a custom stainless cover which I really don't care for. The 39 Fordolette and 41 Fordolette both have the batteries in the trunk out of site.
I like it, I had the same issue with a NOS positive battery cable end that went gunnysack on my 67 GTX. It's attached to a harness that cost big bucks to replace. I went internet surfing and found an almost exact match with a hex screw underneath. I put the wires in, tightened up the hex screw and poured molted solder to fill any voids. Then removed the hex screw and filled that in also. BAM!!! Back to stock again. Necessity isn't always the mother of invention, sometimes friends can teach an old dog a new trick.
