The guys at the inspection place were giving my battery tray the stink-eye, so I decided to tackle it.

At a quick glance, it just looks like I'm a cheapskate.

 

But, on closer examination...

 

18 removed welds later...

 

The truth-be-told, that tray was still in there a lot more secure than it seemed when I was just looking at the rusty mess after the battery came out.

I'm glad that I tackled this job - in a way. But, in terms of labor and expenses, I might have been almost as well off just cutting a few patches, and pop-riveting the patches into place.

 

Oh well,... in for a dime, in for a dollar I guess.




The thing that makes me most glad that I didn't go the patch-and-rivet rout is that I got rid of the most cancerous area right behind the headlights.

 

Fabricated a new front support for the battery tray.

Material is galvanized lumber-strapping from Home Depot.




Gotta be better than the piece I cut out of there.

 

I used a Sears dremel tool to cut most of the spot welds.

A cheap Grizzly hand-held half-inch belt sander was used in a few spots.

I burned through about one dremel cutoff-wheel per spot weld.

Only one spot weld was completely shot before the project started. One of the perished areas behind the headlight.

 

In case you are wondering why there is a neat hole in the spot welds, I went through it with a drill-bit on each of the welds before I started into it with the dremel.

The hole serves two purposes: First is to keep it obvious where the center of the weld is (otherwise easy to lose awareness of the exact location once the cutting starts) and secondly to provide a pilot point for locating a screw-hole for attaching the new tray.

More on those screw-holes below.

A third possible justification for it is to provide a focal point for spot-welding the new tray once it is installed.

 

I gussied-up the area with some paint-code matched rattle-can before bolting the battery tray into place with 18 size #6 screws and hex-nuts.

 

I had to whang-on and bend the flanges on the Hawks battery tray to get them to marry up to the various surfaces. You're kidding yourself if you think that thing is just gonna drop in.

I had to beat he hell out of my "custom" lumber-strap bracket to get it to lay in there without pushing everything caddwampus.

 

After all this - you don't want to know how long I spent on it - I wasn't gonna put the four-year-old "ECONOMY" battery back in it.

 

After FINALLY getting that whole battery tray assembly married-up, I wanted to pul it out to prime-and-paint it.

According to the calendar, it should have been getting too cold to comfortably do this work in the driveway.

Lucky, the weather held up until just about this week. Its cold now.

Too cold to paint outdoors.

So, it will have to do with just the bolts and whanged-on black tray until April-ish.

Of course, nothing is ever easy. The bolt-heads that tie my "custom" lumber-tie bracket to the front of the battery tray stand-proud enough that they would eat-into the bottom of the battery if left as-is. So, I fabricated a wood "shim" to go under the battery from a layer of Home-Depot paint-stirrer sticks laid side-by-side under the battery. The wood shim elevates the battery enough above the screw heads that there won't be any damage to the underside of the battery caused by the screw heads. Keeping it still a challenge, the "lip" on the battery tray that secures the front side of the battery would not quite reach the lip on the battery when it rests on my wood shim. So, break out the vise-grip pliers, and bend the battery tray lip until it does clear it.

Whew.

Oh yeah, and the threads on the original hold-down screw were pretty rotten and galled.





So, I got a new screw from Camaro Central.

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Wow! Great work and good details. Honestly my battery tray is starting to look really cruddy and i was wondering how this job would be done.... Welding .......Yeah way over my head! Good stuff!

 

And, just to keep it interesting, the first day driving it after getting the new battery in it, the alternator died in glorious fashion.

See: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/7...ailure-v6.html

 

I bought the $100 flux-core wire welder from Habor Freight.

I knew I was cutting it close on time (Honestly, I didn't expect to get this far before the weather turned).

I'm going to play with the welder over the winter.

Try to figure out how much I can get by with filling holes and such without making a complete mess of things. I'm going to do evil, horrible, experiments on that old battery tray!

Last time I welded was 1978, and then it was a stick-welder at a machine shop where I was working for the summer. Didn't get to do much then.

I do want to get rid of the screws, and weld those spots where the screws are now. I'll have to make a judgment call on my welding skills before I make it worse than it is as it stands now.

At the least, I want to pull the new tray assembly out, and paint it. No rush on that I guess. It can certainly wait until the return of warmer weather.

 

Save the cut-off wheels for another project, invest in a spot weld cutter. Cheap and effective.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-8-eig...ter-95343.html

If a person wanted to avoid welding, a panel bonding adhesive would probably do fine.

 

a tip on welding holes shut. get a piece of brass or copper and put it right underneath the hole you're attempting to weld shut, weld off the edges of the hole, the copper or brass wont be welded on but will give you a nice flat weld from underneath a high setting that doesn't burn the metal away but will lay a flat puddle is what you're looking for, I've noticed on a couple of the basic 110v house mig welders that the highest setting which is usually 4 is good for doing clean spot welds on floor pans and other sheet metal projects I've done but that was also with gmaw with argon, flux could be a different story.

you can always just grind away on the weld until it's flush and unnoticeable as well, have fun and get a good welding hood.

 

Thanks for the suggestion about the copper backer. I will practice that. I've seen some vids and posts that mention that. The way you explain it makes clear sense of the objective.

I got the instant-on Harbor freight hood, and some leather guantlets, apron and welding gloves.

I considered that spot weld cutter. But, I ruled it out since the majority of the locations and angles for the battery tray are such that there is no way you could get a straight run at the spot that needs cutting. Plus, I am truly talented with the dremel. At least that's what some folks say. I'll take them at their word I guess.

 

lol I know it's years later but I just welding in mine and oof not fun I woke up very sore from all the work I did on it