So I am looking for suggestions and opinions on fixing my battery tray or perhaps relocating the battery somewhere else.

Here is a pic of my battery tray.
Click to view attachment

Here's what we did w/ ours, the tray itself was rusted pretty bad so we took a sawzall and removed the tray and support then cut out the bad areas on the engine bay wall. Lets let the pics do the explanation:






Lastly, we're planning on relocating the battery to the front trunk.

I think there is an Optima mount that could be mounted with its bottom to the sidewall after the tray is cut out. The battery would then be mounted on its side, not a problem as Optimas don't care if they are on their side. This would allow you to cut out all that diseased tray fairly easily without having to weld in a new tray and would encourage you to use a dripless battery so the tray cancer doesn't recur.

hm...

Yeah. I was thinking of doing the same thing as to the new location of the battery. Still would like to see all the different ways you can do this though. pics would help of what people have done to their batt tray's, what they did to it, and new locations for it.

just an aside, you might want to take care of your throttle/speedo cables. letting them lay out encourages damage to them at or near the firewall. replacing them afterwards is at the very least, an avoidable expense, and at worst (just ask me) a clusterfcuk of misery and suffering!

loop them and duct tape them to the firewall so their out of the way.

paul

1. why not simply use the old tray as tamplate and build a new one from scratch ?

or

2. locate the battery in the front trunk.
this add better handling too (battery sit lower (CG) , and add more wight on the front wheels for better braking cornering.

only my 2c.


TOM

The battery tray and support are fairly inexpensive and easily obtainable. I suggest you get a set and install them.

This is probably what I am going to do. Thanks all for the suggestions.

Cut out the old tray. Fix the metal behind it. Fix the hell hole. Weld in a new tray.

Zach

the more you return your car to stock, the higher the value. AND the more it will appreciate in the future.

I got one from AA about 10 years ago and the fit was real good.

I don't think I am going to be selling this car. I am not planning on putting it back into original stock. Right now my plan is to just get it running and drivable for awhile.

time and money ahead to replace the tray with new. think of the money to buy find a battery box,longer cables, find a place to mount the ecm and other stuff that mount to the stock tray.
just cut and grind out the old and plug weld the new in.
i think the new tray and support are 'bout $60.

Andy

I use optimas now but I built ss trays for my fieros just cause I had some available. I'm not sure what I will do yet but I like the battery close to the starter like in bugs but I don't like the long loop the ignition switch does so I change that. If the ic on the suby is a problem that will need to be addressed while the tray deal is being done. The optima on it's side might be the way to go. I will also study up on the smaller high performance batteries as the dang optimas aren't real good setting for long periods of time.