Pre a battery floor

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Tony Proasi
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Pre a battery floor

#1 Post by Tony Proasi »

I'm in the process of finishing up welding in the replacement battery floor on my '52. I know there are the two triangle metal pieces that hold the battery in place from moving side to side is there a piece of sheet metal that is supposed to go a across the back? Picture would be helpful.

Thanks
Tony

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Rick Albro
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#2 Post by Rick Albro »

I don't think there is anything between the battery and the torsion bar tubes... I will take a picture and post of a February 53 car. You can see where the triangles were attached to the sides but there is nothing on the back side, unless there is a lip on the battery floor. There should be a couple of divots where the springs and finger holders that hold the battery cover in place attached. I think the dimension to check is where is the lip on the battery floor and how far is the lip to the torsion bar tubes? If this length is the same as the battery dimension then the answer is clear. You are right in that you certainly don't want your battery shifting around while driving. This is a good question because if the battery does stop against the tubes then is the angle that the torsion bar retaining bolt inserted at sufficient to not make a point source for the back of the battery. I would suspect that the tilt of the bolt is such that the battery hits the tube tangentially before making contact with the retainer bolt and locking nut. Piece number 22 appears to have a deviation from flatness that acts as the back stop. In the real photo this deviation is lost in depth perception and dirt. :>) .... I just felt the area with my hand and in 50199 this area is very flat. The illustration is from 55 so maybe the battery does rest against the torsion tubes on the back side. Maybe some one else will offer some insight.
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Spencer Harris
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#3 Post by Spencer Harris »

Tony,
Rick is correct; there is nothing between the back side of the battery and the torsion bar tubes. I think maybe the taper of the walls where the torsion tubes pass through is such that the original batteries were too wide to slide all the way back and make contact with the tubes. The '53 and later battery covers have a lip with a rubber pad that presses down on the top of the battery to minimize movement. Here are some photos of my '53 battery box replacement. The replacement part is from Trevor. A very nice piece and much easier than welding together all the individual panels, but the floor to rear wall panel lap was different from the original.
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We cut the original box out, retained the original rear wall and removed the new wall from the new box. This allowed for the correct weld connection and made it cleaner aligning the box to the chassis.
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Spencer Harris
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Donald Zingg
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#4 Post by Donald Zingg »

Tony Proasi wrote: I know there are the two triangle metal pieces that hold the battery in place from moving side to side is there a piece of sheet metal that is supposed to go a across the back?

Tony,

A cleat on the plywood base acts as a backstop for the battery. The plywood base is contoured to fit snug in between the walls of the front cross member so it cannot slide back toward the torsion bar tubes. The angle bracket on the floor keeps the plywood base from sliding forward. The flanges inside the metal cover rest on the edges of the battery, and the hold down hooks/ springs pull the metal cover downward and rearward to hold everything in place.
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#5 Post by Tony Proasi »

Guys thanks for the input and the pictures. I received a photo from guy in Australia of his '52 battery box and looking at what's left of mine I'm thinking 51-52 may have been different then the '53-On style. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks,
Tony
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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#6 Post by James Davies »

Hi Tony,

The split windows are definitely different than the bent windows down in the battery box area. The battery is stored on the passenger side of the battery box for the splits, not the center. There is a single long triangular piece (seen in your last photo below) that keeps it in place. There is a piece of metal that goes across the back at about the same height as the long, triangular piece too. The battery fits on the passenger side, and some wooden slats fit on the center and driver side. I'll dig up some photos for you.

Also, the front of the battery box on the splits (and the first bents) has insets for the horns, and the ribs on the battery floor bottom are a bit shorter were the go up the front, to make room for these round inset horn mount areas. Even after the inset horns were no longer used, the ribs remained shorter up the front of the battery box, at least through the end of 1953.

See photo below of 11141, this one is restored, but shows the long triangular piece on the passenger side. This one doesn't have metal closing of the the back side of the battery box at the same height as the triangular piece, but perhaps it should? I think so.
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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#7 Post by James Davies »

Here's another restored car, coupe 11260, that looks like it's had a later bent-window floor welded (or riveted?) in. But you can see the original triangular piece from the split-window floor, and perhaps the piece across the back as well? Perhaps that's been replaced, but I believe that is what it should look like.
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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#8 Post by James Davies »

Finally, here's coupe 11345, unrestored, and while the photo is crap, you can see the piece across the back of the battery box. Nice to see that on an unrestored car. Makes me more confident that that was original.
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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#9 Post by James Davies »

And for completeness, this is what the front of the battery box looked like for the split-window cars (and the first month of production of the bent-window ones). Notice the ribs on the bottom of the battery box are a bit shorter where they meet up with the round insets for the horns.

This one's a little smooshed up, but you can get a sense of how it should be.
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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#10 Post by James Davies »

Here's a '53 original battery box, but you can see that 2 of the ribs are shorter than the other 4. Carryover from when the horns were mounted on the front of the battery box. The current reproduction battery box floors do not reproduce this detail.
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Tony Proasi
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#11 Post by Tony Proasi »

James

Thanks for the pictures! Now the remnants of what was left make sense. I was able to save the front panel with the horn "pockets". I'm not going to stress out on the ribs but will remove the battery bracket and move the drain down a little.

Tony

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James Davies
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#12 Post by James Davies »

Awesome Tony!

I didn't notice that the drain was relocated too. Good eye!

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Mark Cohn
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#13 Post by Mark Cohn »

While we are plowing through Pre-A battery box floor minutia, do the current reproductions have the vertical flanges on the sides? For a long time they did not.

Tony Proasi
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Re: Pre a battery floor

#14 Post by Tony Proasi »

Mark

The one installed did not. I would have had to trim them off anyway to get it to fit correctly. I purchased mine from restoration design and it worked and fit great with very little trimming.

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