Fake Battery Covers - Would You??

[The Rebel]

I was at a car show on Sun & saw these. Definitely a cheaper alternative than spending $400 for a reproduction battery. Who sells these & if so would you buy one?

 

[oldbee]

Personally? Nope.

 

[Scatpack]

Got mine from year one. Had it for about 4 years. Fool about 95% of the people that glance at it

 

[Dibbons]

Rather spend that much as the down payment for a boob job for my best friend (but I don't care for phony batteries nor phony boobies).

 

[Lee Robinson]

Personally? Nope.

Some people are just to **** for me. Have to have OEM battery, correct
chalk marks on firewall, rivets instead of bolts on replacement ball joints, etc. Repop bias ply tires, date coded glass. One should enjoy their cars,
not have a show piece where the goal is to take first place at the car
show. That's just me.

 

[metaldad]

Rather spend that much as the down payment for a boob job for my best friend .

 

[dadsbee]

Some people are just to **** for me. Have to have OEM battery, correct
chalk marks on firewall, rivets instead of bolts on replacement ball joints, etc. Repop bias ply tires, date coded glass. One should enjoy their cars,
not have a show piece where the goal is to take first place at the car
show. That's just me.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The OP asked a question and someone answered it, but not to your liking apparently. As for your reply everyone enjoys their cars in different ways or they wouldn't have them. Some enjoy the work, some enjoy doing the extra detail and some just enjoy driving them. Some enjoy ALL of that! Yes I will have a show piece when I'm done mine with my script battery that I paid $400 for, hell it's a show piece now incomplete. I have absolutely no intention of taking it to a car show to win a prize and I plan on driving the **** out of it when done, just like I've done since 1979. (and my Father did the 10 years before that..)

 

[moes]

I've bought a couple over the years from this company, nice piece. Nobody is making the reproduction Mopar batteries right now. Different companies advertise them, but when you contact them they say they can't get them.

http://www.batterytoppers.com/products/

going throught my papers that I've saved over the years, I've bought a few Mopar reproduction batteries for my cars from this company years ago, they also sell the Mopar battery toppers.

http://www.antiqueautobattery.com/batteries.html

just check through my stash of Mopar stuff and a found a battery topper that I used on one of my Dusters that I owned.



here is picture of the topper on my 1970 340 Duster

 

[493 Mike]

I saw a battery shell the other day designed to hold a 6 volt 3 cell Optima (diagonally). It looked pretty good.
Mike

 

[FrnkNsteen]

Some people are just to **** for me. Have to have OEM battery, correct
chalk marks on firewall, rivets instead of bolts on replacement ball joints, etc. Repop bias ply tires, date coded glass. One should enjoy their cars,
not have a show piece where the goal is to take first place at the car
show. That's just me.

At first I agreed, but as I thought about it, I guess like all things, it depends on what you are restoring. If you have a rare numbers matching, I guess I can see making it as complete to original as possible, though I still don't understand all the chalk marks, crappy seam sealer placement, and paint smears. All the things people complained about being poor workmanship back in the day. Those were the things my Dad would have been pissed about and immediately cleaned them off.

Dadsbee is right,... to each their own. People should do their cars the way they want. Personally though, if I were that worried about putting my car back to 100% original, a fake battery cover seems kind of cheesy. Just my opinion. I guess if nobody is making them like Moes said,... what else are you going to do??

 

[Ranger16]

I had considered it, but when I saw it cost more than the battery I decided against it, ESPECIALLY since everything under my hood is not exactly as it once was.

 

[XMAN JR]

I never heard good things about the real ones. I would never spend that much on a battery when all I was doing was going for a certain look.

 

[davek]

nope not for me.

 

[Fran Blacker]

Some buy the $400 battery and leave them dry. They go to a show pull their driver battery and put the dry battery in. I bought a resto battery 25 yrs ago still sitting on the shelve.

 

[dadsbee]

I never heard good things about the real ones. I would never spend that much on a battery when all I was doing was going for a certain look.

The current rendition, that I bought last year, is a "dry" battery. It has an Odyssey AGM battery hidden inside the case. Unlike the regular lead acid reproductions of days past. I also have a brand new lead acid that was never filled. It's a 27 series red cap that's been sitting on my shelf for the past 28 years. Probably going to cut the case open and hide an AGM inside that one as well for my 'Bird.

 

[rrTor-Red]

If anything for my car, I might just go to the dealership and be done. No, mine isn't 100%. Actually, I sometimes refer to it as my "Frankenstien"

 

[rlem1977]

My opinion, no. If you want an OEM battery, buy an OEM battery, if available. If not available, find a battery as close as you can that looks OEM. A cover just looks cheesy. My opinion. That said, its your car, you do what makes you happy.

Sometimes you just can't keep it OEM. Case in point '71 - '74 B bodies... OEM plastic heater control valves. New ones from Year One, Rock Auto, etc. are metal. Heck, back in the '70s the replacements became metal because the plastic ones would crack and leak. You can find a 40+ year old OEM one on ebay or such for big bucks. I wouldn't put one of those on with a 40 year old dried out seal in it. My point being, don't feel bad if you want to put a modern replacement part on your car because sometimes you just can't keep it OEM.

Enjoy your car the way you want to.

 

[451Mopar]

Seems like a nice idea, if your going for a OE look.
I relocated my batteries to the trunk so usually only the tech inspector sees them.

 

[GetX'd]

Nope - sounds kind of cheesy to me too. Real deal or close as you can find to it.

 

[Kern Dog]

If someone were to use a fake topper, do NOT use the type of battery cables in that first picture! What is the point? Why try hard to fake one thing only to have a totally wrong set of battery cables next to it???