I recently purchased a 1945 Chevrolet that has been fully restored. As part of my detailing I wanted to remove the battery and clean it up. Unfortunately I found and confirmed by another post on this site that one has to remove the floor pan to exchange the battery. This I was not going to do. Fortunately, the person who restored it had fabricated a nice heavy duty battery tray made of angles and brackets that easily fastened to the 2 transmission cross members using 2 bolts on each end (see picture). Seeing this plus the fact that the battery had a lift strap on it as comes on some batteries, I came up with this idea...
With that type of battery and battery tray all I had to do was install new longer bolts with the threaded ends down and secure them as tight as possible to the crossmembers (see picture) so they will not turn. Also painted the tray just for grins.
Now the process is: 1) Remove the battery leads and hold down strap (I use a bungee cord) via the useless little opening that is provided in the floor pan. 2) Grab the battery lift strap and pick it up and place a board under the strap and across the opening (see picture) to get the battery off of the tray. 3) remove the tray from under the pickup. 4) Lower the battery to the ground.
Reverse the process to reinstall.
Hope this helps someone out there.
As a footnote, I found that the battery is almost 8 years old and works fine. That surprised me.
Where there is a will there’s always a way. Good job!
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
I never understood why they didn't just make the battery access panel larger. Removing the whole floor at once time was a pain what with trying to clear the seat, handbrake and the gearshift (1946). A year or so later I spent several hours trying to figure out how to remove the battery from underneath. I was just sure there had to be a way,. thinking they'd not force someone to pull the floor plan.....obviously I was wrong.
You are correct. The Optima battery is a good choice for antique vehicles that are not used regularly. They can be mounted in any position and are sealed to eliminate leaks. With the battery tray designed appropriately, the battery could lay on its side with the terminals toward the side of the truck. Then it would be easy to lay under the truck and exchange batteries.
