78 Series Battery Topper- Modified the 69hurstolds way

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69hurstolds

Geezer
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Jan 2, 2006
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I still have the original factory-installed battery out of my 85 442, although the battery has seen better days. I was hoping that at some point, I could get it "restored" or "rebuilt" and use it to start the car once again. But I've abandoned that idea.

So I started to look elsewhere to see what could possibly be used. Maybe an updated battery that could be modified to look like the original. Who knows.

As y'all may be aware, an individual that frequents many of the GM forums has produced several versions of the Delco Freedom battery topper, pretty much as a 78 series common battery topper.

They're very nice quality, but while there's plenty of different Delco Freedom batteries that are out there that can be topped, there just wasn't any out there using the 1985 battery style like mine.

I was told that since demand was next to nearly nothing for my decals, I would have to pay the $100 for the digitizing and such for making the decals. While I don't have too much of an issue with that, I'm not going to do it to fund someone else's business unless I get all the rights to those decals. Which for $100, I think I'll be the one eating it in the shorts.

Anyway, I'm not going to discount the low demand of said decals, so sometimes it's worth it to take matters into your own hands. I've developed some rudimentary digitization skills of my own in Photo Chomp over the years. So working off the original battery, I made some conversion decal prototypes for the black Freedom II topper that's being sold. There is a slight difference in that the original battery is a smaller 75, so the 78 caps are a tad different in size, but not by much. However, it did take a little tweaking to flesh it all out. Still have a bit more to do.

I'm still tinkering with the exact color match of the grayish/silvery looking parts of the decal. But that's easy enough to figure out once I get there. And once I get the decal made itself, I'll be stamp cutting out the round hole to go around the "eye". I just imprinted a picture of an "eye" for the paper copies just to get the idea what it will look like. The label for the size at the top is a bit different than original so I left it alone. But still has the same info. Not sure I'll mess with that yet, but I might.

The prototypes are on printed paper, as I do all my prototype decals. No sense in making the actual decal until I get it where I want it to be.

Original battery:
Delco Freedom Batt 85 Olds 442 Original.JPG


My "new" topper decals:
Prototype Decal Run 85 442 Factory HD Battery.JPG



Also, I did make some decals for making up an 87 442 battery. Still haven't put all that on the battery yet. I believe the 730 battery is the standard battery and the 601 was the heavy duty. Either way, I made decals for either, so I'm set.
87 442 style battery.jpg
 
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79 GP 4 speed

Master Mechanic
Nov 12, 2017
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They look really good. Are you going to be making them for other years for people to buy?
 

69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
8,088
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I've learned a few things along the way and here's just one of them. 95% of the people on earth have no idea what the original Delco battery looked like that came in their car when new. Another one is that it seems every year they had 40 different Delco battery sizes and power outputs, thus 40 different battery labels. I'm not a business. I just do it as more of a hobby.

If you have an 85 or 87 battery label need, or even a 2002 as I made a few some years back for the 2002 Camaro SS I had, now sold, I can probably help you out without issue.

There is simply way too many versions to keep track of or generate a bunch of labels for different years that I don't have access to. If you had something different than what you can find from other sources, I may be able to conjure up something if you have a good example to work with. No guarantees.

You can send an email to [email protected] and discuss it with him. He's the one that has the current battery toppers out there. I've got no reason to try and reinvent the stuff he's got going.
 
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69hurstolds

Geezer
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Jan 2, 2006
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Prototype decals done. Just need to figure out where to stamp the holes, then get the "good decal stuff" and go to town.

85 442 Delco HD Battery Prototype Lid.JPG
 
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69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Umph. Never realized I never posted a "final" version of this. I finally figured out where the hole had to go. It's not perfect, but it's better than most.

85 442 Delco HD Battery Finished Lid.JPG
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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Spring, Texas
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JAMCAR223

Royal Smart Person
Jun 6, 2014
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Awesome Mike!!
 
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Burd

Greasemonkey
Apr 7, 2021
248
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Detroit
I saw this and I joined here, we now do 2 black top battery’s. Here’s the line up.
 

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Burd

Greasemonkey
Apr 7, 2021
248
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43
Detroit
I was going to list prices, but should I post in the sale section if there is one, I didn’t want to step on any toes, lol.
 
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