points

[lyndon sharpton]

when chasing points for flight judging, is it worth it to spend big money on a repo battery for 225$ are the 65$ for the AC Delco replacment? what are your thoughts on money VS points?

[Joe L.]

Re: points

lyndon-----

No, in my mind, it's not worth it to spend a lot of money for a reproduction battery. A battery is a very life-limited component, anyway, and that may be especially true of these reproduction units.

[Joe R.]

Re: points

Hi Lyndon:

An unusually large number of points are assigned to the battery (25 originality + 15 condition = 40 total). The JM calls for a 50% deduction on originality for an appropriate Delco service replacement, so you are looking at an automatic loss of at least 12 points. Using your cost delta of $160, that's about $13/point.

I agree with Joe Lucia that since the battery is a perishible item, it may not make sense to spend the extra money to get the extra points. On the other hand, these are pretty easy points to capture, and the cost per point is in line with a lot of other basic improvements that may be available to you.

I think that the "acceptable" cost-per-point number is a function of what level the car is presently at. If your car presently scores an 85%, there are probably a lot of other (durable) parts you could buy for less than $13/point. On the other hand, if the car presently scores 95%, the cost-per point to gain further improvements will probably greatly exceed $13/point.

So, I guess the value of the points tied up in the battery has to be considered in context with the car's current condition, your goals, and the alternative ways in which you could spend the same dollars.

[Patrick H.]

Re: points

Joe,

Well put.

On my 72 Bowtie car, the battery is a good source of points, since there's a limit to how many I can get by "improving" other parts of the car. So, it has a reproduction battery in it. Now a few more small items and I hope to cross the 97% barrier if I go for a Duntov.

If I had a restored car and could pick up the points in cheaper areas, I would. Always remember that Ops has the cheapst points-per-dollar available. There's virtually NO reason not to pass everything in Ops.

Patrick

[William C.]

Re: points

I use a $120 tartop in my '65 and it works quite well on a $ per point basis, New Castle battery is GM liscensed.

[Eugene B.]

Re: points

Joe,
Good comments. When we apply the same calculation to the '65-'66 power antenna, we get quite a different result.

Refurbishing the power antenna is $750 (last checked) and it's operation is worth 10 points. That's obviously $75/point. Ouch! I can get 12 points for a more correct battery for less than one-fourth the cost of the antenna.

Only the "things we do for love" are more costly than the things we do for points. Sounds like an old song playing in the background.

Best regards, gents.

Gene

[Mike M.]

Re: points

Gene, Make sure the battery you get is a true Tar-top or you will loose about 8 points like I did in Windsor. My battery had a plastic top with no tar on it from Restoration Battery in Cincinnati. Mike

[Joe R.]

Re: points

Hi Gene:

I agree about the things we do "for love" or whatever. Sometimes it almost seems like a mental disease, but I try not to take it too seriously.

My earlier point was that for a car that has a lot of incorrect items, there is typically a lot of "low hanging fruit" in terms of points that are easy to capture. The closer to you get to a Duntov level, the higher the incremental cost is for each additional point.

When I first got my car it was a nice driver and a solid Second Flight. After having it judged, I made a spreadsheet listing the items I lost points on and the estimated cost to fix each item. I included a column that showed the cost per point for each item. Then I sorted the list in order of increasing cost per point.

The items at the top of the list were virtually free, such as removing paint from parts that should be unpainted. The item at the bottom of the list was repainting the entire car to gain back 10 condition points on the paint.

I'd like to say that I followed a very rational process and worked the list in sequence, starting with the lowest cost-per-point items. However (and this is where the irrational part comes in), I have on occasion paid $100/point for small items that I ran across, despite the fact that there were other things still not done on the car that had a much lower cost per point.

I can't really explain this other than to say that I get a lot of personal satisfaction from getting some of those small items to be completely "correct." I view my restoration as a long term process, so when I run across a correct small item that I know I will eventually need, I sometimes buy it despite the fact that it is farther down on my official list. This is particulary true of original parts, since there is only a finite supply of them.

In the case of the reproduction battery that started this thread, that is something that can be deferred until the time is right, since reproduction batteries will probably always be available. I still haven't purchased a reproduction battery for my car, although I intend to do so before the car is judged again.