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Battery Shelf Rust

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John Moore

John Moore

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Well I managed to the the bonnet off my 61 Bugeye today so I could really dig into the engine bay. First thing I did was to pull the ancient battery. Looks like the battery shelf if toast. In my BE a much later rounded heater box has been installed. It also looks like the DPO cut out part of the later spidget battery shelf and and installed it with the box. I see in the Moss catalog the shelf sheet metal is available for later spridgets, can it be used in a bugeye?

Boy my engine bay is a mess. Right now the plan is to pull everything, take it to the drive way and power wash/clean up the rust then shoot with primer. At this point I still want to try and get it running before I totally strip it. But I dunno!
 

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When I used to have a '68' sprite the bottom of my pant leg would get tattered from the battery acid coming in through the heater. Don't know about Moss' part I'm using 1/8" diamond plate steel on my '62'. And, the next battery will be an Optima.

Good luck,
Walter
 
That is a pretty easy part to make, but you may need a template for the heater aperture if yours has been butchered.
 
Trevor Jessie said:
That is a pretty easy part to make, but you may need a template for the heater aperture if yours has been butchered.
Click to expand...

I guess I'll find out more when I pull the heater box. The outside walls seem to be in good shape. Fingers crossed!
 
Looks like the battery has burnt the typical holes in the firewall. Then some PO used the holes to run cable and wires
 
John, that looks AMAZINGLY like my engine bay did/does, down to the heater type!! As everyone has said above, not real tough to fix battery tray rot!
 
Yeah the DPO filled that one hole with tons of silicone goop! When the time comes, I'm gonna really lean on you guys for detailed photos of your engine bays so I can figure out what goes where and what holes to repair.

Yeah, hopefully, it won't be too bad to fix.
 
I have one of those typical battery firewall holes. What is the best way to repair that?
 
There was a fellow selling nice-looking repro steel battery trays on ebay a while ago, although I can't find one A.T.M. Should be fairly simple to cut & grind the old one out, and spot weld a new one in. (Or have same done for you, if you don't weld.)

Here's mine, after a quick de-rust and a coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. (That's what a lifetime spent in California gets you, apparently. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Of course, I still haven't driven it this summer... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif ) Let me know if you need any measurements.


03-06-07_1805.jpg
 
Duncan,

Thanks for the photo! Looks great! My Bugeye is DEFINITELY not a rust free California car! lolol! Good thing I can cut, weld and grind.
 
I got the old heater box out and it doesn't look too bad. I can't tell but is the fire wall one solid peice of sheet metal or is there a lap seam where the battery tray attaches? The rust has crept forward a bit on the driver side and it looks like I"m missing a captive nut, but looks like the lower "vent" section is all intact. So good!
 

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Looking at your pics, problem(s) I had a problem with the channel that holds the rear bonnet seal. I cut it out and replaced it with (2) pcs. of aluminum channel from ACE or Home Depot, applied POR-15 and pop riveted it in place. bought a seal from Moss (I think) and am now installing a new Spridgtech bonnet with front tilt (with bumber). This is going fine but slow. No problems that i can't fix.
 
Looking at your pics, problem(s) I had a problem with the channel that holds the rear bonnet seal. I cut it out and replaced it with (2) pcs. of aluminum channel from ACE or Home Depot, applied POR-15 and pop riveted it in place. bought a seal from Moss (I think) and am now installing a new Spridgtech bonnet with front tilt (with bumber). This is going fine but slow. No problems that I can't fix.
 
John, take a look under your dash and you can get a good idea how the bulkhead is attached.
 
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