1969 Avanti Battery Tray restoration and upgrade

[SBCA96]

As some of you may know I recently acquired my dads 1969 Avanti II after his death last year. The car was
originally from California, and now its back from a 20 year vacation in Michigan. It spent most of its time in a
garage, years ago it received a 1989 Camaro TH700R4 that was in my 1960 Hawk, and sports my Avantis '63
steering wheel (which will go into storage after I get a Grant replacement for it).

The car has the factory Corvette 327 engine, which I got running after first getting a battery to sit under the
hood in the factory location. Avantis are known for having blown out battery boxes, the box was molded into
the fiberglas fender and without enough bracing to handle the abuse. Most look like this by now ....



with this piece no longer attached ...



So the quest to fix this began. Many suggested to put the battery in the trunk, but I really didnt want to deal
with that effort, back where its supposed to go was best. Much fiberglass work was what I was told, but I did
not see a reason for it to be fiberglass, why not attach it better? I wanted to be sure that the mod would allow
me to lower the body later to Studebaker height (by removing the spacers) after I visit the engine height. So
attaching to the FRAME was key. I also wanted to go to a side terminal GM style battery and get away from
the top terminal setup.

First was to get a battery tray .. I wanted one with some material attached to work with, this 1990's Chevy
Suburban looked like it would work nicely.

















Tom

[SBCA96]

Obviously the long metal piece spot welded to it wouldnt work given the angle they put the battery at and how
close the frame sits below so it had to be bent over. After a few measurements I found that the thickness of
a 2x4 would space the box where I wanted it off the nuts that hold the sway bar stand. For a Studebaker the
body sits lower, so I feel this piece can be removed the holes drilled through the tray at these locations. Since
the body is at this height now, that will have to wait.









Next was some trial fitting, some guesswork and some luck. Cutting off the excess material not needed...





They have a stud on this corner. There was still material left on the battery box in the fender, so a hole was
drilled here to use it.





Marked with a sharpie.



Tom

[SBCA96]

Time to remove more material not need ...



Some guess work on hole locations by marking with the tray sitting ON the sway bar bolts ..





A couple "Hail Mary" holes drilled... (one had to be slotted after trial fit)



Flattened this a bit as the room next to the inner fender looked tight (I think it would have worked, but whatever)





The stud to bolt to the fender below..



Got dead on with one hole, the other needed slotting.



Trial fit looks good..





Tom

[SBCA96]

Holes drilled and ready for final fitment check.



Everything checked out so add some paint ..





Bolted up.



I through bolted the "tab" sticking up on the outer corner, feels pretty stout.



Trial fit with a used battery looks good. This is a 75 series GM battery that fits Camaro, Caprice, Impala etc ...



Napa had a battery sale .. AAA discount and a 10 dollar rebate ..





Bought this conversion cable end from Oreillys .. you cut off the top terminal end and slide into the end tighten a set screw.





Tom

[WayneC]

Nice work, Tom.

I never understood how the (Avanti II) factory allowed such a crappy situation to exist.

There was (maybe still is) some sort of kit that was supposed to bolster that area, and I ordered it, but it came without instructions and I never figured out how those few small pieces of metal were supposed to be used.

On my '71 I tried to add support below the battery with an old round rubber bumper that I found at a swap meet (with a threaded stud embedded). I attached a makeshift bracket to the frame using two existing bolt ends; the bracket used two nuts to adjust and lock the height of the pad to meet the the battery. Not ideal (a couple of studs attached beneath a metal battery tray, with a rubber mat in the tray, might have been better); certainly not as good as your innovation, but I'm hoping it helps:

Edited March 14, 2016 by WayneC

[RQB1820]

Nice work. Great pics of the procedure. Much thanks.