battery topper

[nancy charles]

has any one out there experienced any problems using a battery toppper in there 1963 -1965 vette ? as far as fitting it under the battery hold down . need to here your problems . i here you have to trim them on all ( 4 ) corners to fit underneath the hold down . any other problems iwould love to here . THANKS ALL

[Jeff S.]

Re: battery topper

Nancy

I went through this "adventure" on '66 non-air car, which should use the same hold-down as a late '63 thru '66. My info is about 4 years old, so things may have improved or changed by now.

First; the holes in the topper for the + and - battery terminal locations were not on-center for a size 24 battery. I had to use a dremmel to make them elliptical enough to get the battery posts' through.
Second; the battery you employ must have a flat top & be maintenance free because the added stack height of the topper climbs up near the expansion tank.
Third; the hold-down 'picture frame' did not clear the lips on topper's edges, so that all had to be cleared off with jig saw or other means. Not easy.
Fourth; now what's left of the topper is finally down over the battery and surrounded/clamped by the hold down. However, now there's not enough terminal post height left above the topper to get a good clamp on a spring ring cable or quick disconnect switch. Try the spun aluminum 'extenders' -- lousy electrical and mechanical contact gave numerous starting problems
Fifth; I gave up, gathered all remaining bits, pieces, receipts, and other evidence of this bad idea and threw them in the trash.

[David B.]

Re: battery topper

Nancy,

I used one. It required modifications to the post holes for mine, but not that big a deal. The cables can be aligned to cover them somewhat. It looks pretty good for casual appearance, certainly not fooling anyone who cares to look hard. But I wanted an Optima battery and at least this made it look better - I think.

Dave

[Joe DeAngelis]

Re: battery topper

I have one on my 1966 small block car. It fits okay with no cutting. I just don't like the way it looks. It doesn't come close to an original DC12 battery look.

[Steven A.]

Re: battery topper

I also use one of these, but wasn't happy with the look at all. Totally phoney looking, IMHO. I went with a Restoration Battery reproduction. A little pricey, but a much superior product.