Yet another surprised in my crossfire. Somebody tore a big hole right where the battery mount should have been. Yes that is the tire and jack stand you are seeing through the hole.


big *** hole

can somebody provide a picture of a normal battery mount or box? I plan to close this hole back up and make a new battery mount. I would very much appreciate it.

 

Wow. What did someone do?


(Automatic transmission, I see. )

 

Hope you got one heck of a deal on that car?

 

$35 battery tray don't know if that includes the top Adkins Auto Parts USA-IN(Martinsville) 1-800-369-8549 or Battery tray new $54 https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/MB-1706200118


not the one for the salvage yard

 

I paid 6.5K after getting it home and really going over it. I should have paid 4K tops. Oh well, I am stuck with it and I will rescue this poor beast.

 

I have no idea why and what they were doing to this poor car. It's going to be a ***** to weld a patch considering there is not much space to get a grinder in there.

 

Thanks for the tip! Once I get the hole repaired I will be looking!

 

I got my hole repaired. I had a helluva a time with the welder and small space. It's not a great job but it's covered. One mistake a I made was not putting down a heat shield over the air hose and electrical wire. I check popped off from welding and it melted. Anybody know what I can use for repair. I was thinking a hose to match the outside diameter and sleeve the break.


The top side of the hole

from the wheel well

 

If the distance from end to end is not too far, auto parts stores will have an assortment of vacuum fittings. You just need the right size coupling.
I find myself thinking welding first for many a repair, but with the new adhesives they are often the best way to go. If applied properly the SEM adhesives are stronger than welds.

 

A mouse chewed my gray pneumatic line. I used a slightly bigger tube and shrink tubing to fix it. I put the larger tube over the gray tube, and then shrunk the shrink sleeve over it to make is stay and be more airtight.

 

I repaired the damage from my welding on the vacuum line and electrical line under the battery box.


Damage

Here is the fix.

Fixed

I read in another post the vacuum line goes to reservoir for the heat/AC system. I have no idea what is the electrical circuit. Anybody have any idea what is this?

Now I have to build a battery box or buy a salvaged one.

 

E-bay has an OEM one for 46.00. Doubt if you can build one for that?

 

i have been trying to find out where all of those wires in that bundle are supposed to be connected. I believe a couple of them are for the washer fluid tank. The others I have no idea 😯

I have a couple of issues, too and spoiler. I don't believe these wires have anything to do with those issues.

im definitely not a electrical schematic genius, i cannot interpret them period.

anyway, good luck. And if anyone knows about the aforementioned wires,
i would be absolutely grateful

 

Those wires could go to the heaters on the windshield nozzles.
Edit
Or maybe not.

 

I think two of the wires go to the washer reservoir float, two go to the washer pump motor.

 

thank you. That makes sense because my washer pump isn't working. Or my low washer fluid light.

i know the pump works because I thought my washer fluid tank was cracked. So I removed everything and and all was fine. Washer pump appeared to be in great shape, I know that doesn't mean it works.

anyway. Thanks I'm going too see if I can find a way to reconnect or devise something else.

 

Here is the wires showing in this file.
CLICK

 

While I could have bought for a reasonable price a replacement battery tray, I decided to build my own. Mostly because I wanted improve my metal working skills by doing. I had a left over steel barrel top from a burn barrel. So I started with that. I traced out the battery and used a quarter inch offset for the tray design.


Barrel top with my vision.

I used a 3 inch rotary cut off tool to cut out my design.


The start


Finished cutout

I placed the battery on cutout for testing and fitting.


Yes this is going to work.

So I should have taken some more pictures and there are some steps missing.
1) I used the rotary cut off tool to score along the fold lines. This is a trick I had picked from a youtube video of hand made metal trays. I worked nicely. By scoring a very shallow cut into the metal you can hand fold into the desired shape. You can see scoring lines on the up tab.
2) I used a hammer and a dolly to tap the corners together. This worked very nicely. Scoring lines really should not be hand cut. LOL
3) I welded the corners. I still have much to learn in my welding skills.


Folded and welded

I folded over my strap tab and welded on the bolted tab for holding the battery tray in place. I then tested the battery in the tray.


Almost there

I had welded a tube on the backside for the bungie cord. I made a clip that goes into the retaining tab. I place a plastic trim around the perimeter to protect the battery and fingers on the sharp metal edges.



Final product

Installed into the car. Some concluding thoughts here.

1) The clip is too hard to use at this point. While my design has merit, it needs further refinement for ease of use. It's too hard to clip the bungie in place.
2) I only have one attachment point at the firewall side. I may use dual lock fasteners on the other side of the batter that sits on the wheel well.
3) This was a great opportunity for me to improve my metal working skills. I did improve my welding skills on sheet metal. It's way too easy to blow holes into sheet metal than to weld it. I got better at aligning wire feed and voltage on my MIG welder. And for the curious, I use a 80/20 mix on my gas for steel.



Installed battery with the new tray

 

Nice fabrication work!