This in not a paid for advertisement. It is simply my exerience and opinion on a producr I purchased and recomment. Your experience may vary from mine.
The Dodge Charger Nuremberg Daytona on the set of Power Nation.
If you are like a lot of classic car collectors who seriously show their pride and joy, you have likely been very frustrated and irritated since COVID. As you likely know, when you are showing your car at shows that use “real Judges,” not just someone who owns an old car, judging is a very serious process. It can take 20 minutes per car if they are truly serious, or it might take hours in a concours or preservation classes. Among other things, in such classes you MUST have an original battery to the car or at least a high quality, authentic reproduction. When we show, regardless of the show, we want our cars to be as close to 100 points as we can realistically achieve. Having an authentic reproduction battery is mandatory.
Over the past few years, we have spent over a $1,000 trying to find, obtain, and use such a battery in all our top show cars. This had become an extremely difficult and beyond irritating effort. It made no difference if you were looking for a proper battery for a Ford, GM, or MOPAR vehicle. However, I think we have turned the corner, and we might possibly be headed in the right direction again.
We are not endorsing or criticizing any battery manufacturer or retail seller. Pre-COVID, I had purchased numerous reproduction batteries without a problem. The supply may have been limited at times, but for the most part, it was a clean, clear supply chain. When that dried up, and no appropriate vintage car batteries were available, there were only two options that I saw. The first was to buy a modern battery or try to rebuild an older “dead” vintage reproduction. I first went for the rebuild. It is not something I could do, and I don’t recommend it. My mechanic took on the challenge, and it looked great, but didn’t work well. It was expensive, but it just didn’t have the cranking or lasting power required to turn over a high performance big block. (There is a third option: change out a standard modern battery for a dead original at the show. This will work for a lesser show, but at the big shows where the Judges mechanically check all electronics and ask you to start the car, this will not work.) The second choice is to simply use a modern battery. This will work, but it will also cost you valuable points during judging. In highly competitive shows and classes, this is unacceptable. There was no good solution.
During this time, I kept in touch with my preferred vintage battery supplier, Battery Central https://batterycentralmall.com/. Over a several year time frame, I am sure my pestering emails about “When will you have the battery I need?” got under their skin. I was just one of hundreds of similar calls and emails from other car enthusiasts. In spite of my frustration, Wayne Cunningham kept his cool and assured me that the proper batteries were coming. Although the delivery schedule continued to slide, much to my and his dismay, my much needed battery arrived this week just as he had promised!
The battery is beautiful, and fired my big block MOPAR better than any other in years! However, there was one more surprise. Wayne had included two sheets of paper with instructions. The first explained what kind of battery charger should be used and why. The second went into detail about the charging process to keep your battery healthy for a long time. The first battery I got from him years ago had a life span of 7 years! I have included a copy of his instruction sheet on how to properly charge your new vintage battery.
What is the biggest surprise? These new batteries seem to be of a higher quality than the previous ones and COST LESS! If you have not been able to locate the vintage battery you need for your car, give Battery Central Mall a try.
I grew up and lived in Iowa for a good portion of my life before moving to Southern California. After 20+ years we now live outside Nashville Tennessee. I have been into cars since I was old enough to remember. I don't have a brand loyalty although I do prefer American Muscle especially the 1969/1970 NASCAR Aero Cars. (Check out our other web site at www.TalladegaSpoilerRegistry.com site) As long as it has four wheels and an engine I get excited. Few men are lucky enough to be able to share their passion for cars with the woman they love. Fortunately, my wife, Katriana, is also a gear head and many of our activities revolve around the cars. We have a small collection that includes at least one car from each of the Big Three. It includes a Best of Show winner, a survivor, a driver with lots of patina and several others. Katrina prefers all original cars while I like to modify them so we have a few of each. When we aren't playing with cars we are out working with or showing our miniature donkeys. You can see more about that part of our lives at http://www.LegendaryFarms.com.
