3D Printed Ford Battery Case Help

[Mart]

Excellent work. It's an area I'm not familiar with, so it's all new to me and very interesting. Thanks for all your hard work in making it and documenting it.

[WarbirdPhotog]

Okay, here's the BIG update! I meant to post it a two weeks ago when I actually finished, but life has been crazy. The 3D printed 1940 Ford Battery is DONE and ready to be installed (well, once the car is ready).

It's taken about a year of on/off again work, lots of failed/wrong prints, lots of re-tinkering, printing, more printing, fitting, sanding, and painting. All the photos below are of the finished battery.







The texture is spot on with the original 'star texture', as I call it. I even used the same seam as the original battery (which was super helpful).



The top cell connectors are painted in a way that makes them look cast metal. It even has the ever so slight raised/lowered stamping marks for the Ford Logo like on the original. (The top got a little dusty from waiting for the rest of it to be done!)



I couldn't find any really good original photos of the gold painting on the Ford logo, so I went with what I had from Kube's book which was this matte gold rather than a super reflective gold. Looks pretty good. It was a PAIN to paint though. I had to print the Ford logo as an insert to block the gold from going in the black areas.



The red-top Optima battery fits in perfectly. The only modification to it is to remove the little feet tabs. Otherwise, it fits like a glove (with some room to spare). The base acts as a platform to raise the optima to the correct height. No cut-outs at the bottom.



Now, one thing that has been suggested is that the three cells on top are raised a bit too high. This is due, from what I've been told, to the cells on the original battery (and photos I studied of original batteries) 'swelling' over time. They should be a bit more flat. That would actually give me a bit more terminal showing from the Optima. I may, sometime in the future, try printing the top again with the cell tops lowered, but it works well with plenty of grip for the terminal battery cable clamps for now.

So, I'm taking a break for a bit from this project before I decide how I want to proceed with it. Naturally, I can't sell them with the Ford logo, which defeats the point.

Here's a look at all the failed prints, things that ended up being off, sides that warped from uneven cooling, my quest to perfect the star texture, etc. Probably about a reel and a quarter's worth of filament here:



I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this fun journey! Lots of frustrations along the way, but also learned a lot. Once I can focus on some other projects (including the car itself), I'll announce what I'm going to do with the 3D files for the project. And I want to borrow the original battery again so I can do side-by-side photos.