Battery Not Included

With all the work I have put into this car in the past month or so it may be hard for some to believe that I haven't even started the car in over three months. The reason for this you ask. Well, when I got the car a little over a year ago the stock battery had been replaced with an Odyssey PC925, relocated to the back hatch behind the passenger seat, and left to sit for two plus years. I tried to revive that battery, but no such luck. A custom made box had been created in this process so I decided to get another Odyssey PC925 to replace the old one. Fast forward almost exactly a year and the new Odyssey battery won't take a charge anymore either. Well, to make a long story short I have been left a little short of impressed with Odyssey batteries and even though I had a nice custom made battery box for one I was not about to blow another $150 and pray that the third time would be a charm.

Instead, I turned to craigslist and found a three month old Optima Red Top for a mere $50 (yes, I know this is practically stealing). Due to the size difference the custom box had to be pulled. I test fit the Optima and due to my over zealous trimming of the rear bin on the previous battery install there seemed to be plenty of room for the Red Top.

I did some planning and worked with a friend to draw up some plans for a custom box to fit the new battery in the rear bin.



Fancy drawing yes, but I was lacking materials, motivation and time so I decided to go ahead and create a mount for the battery as a temporary fix to keep this Optima from being tossed about the car. I used some aluminum angle bar that I had laying around to act as a hold down for the base of the Red Top. Since this battery isn't perfectly rectangular I had to make some cuts to allow for proper clearance.



After I had finished up with the grinding my roommate showed up with lunch and I got a bit distracted for a little while, as mentioned previously motivation was an issue. After about a two hour break I was back to work. I had the front and rear mounts in place, but needed to make sides to allow for the bolts that would ultimately hold the battery to the tub of the car.



At this point I figured I was pretty much done, but when I went to dry fit my little creation in the car I realized that the floor pan was not a flat enough for the battery to mount securely. I decided to fix this problem by creating a small platform that would help to level out the mounting area.



After a bit of shimming and shaving the shelf was in place and bolt holes were once again ready to be drilled.



Anyone who has tried to work in the interior of an RX-7 can tell you there isn't much room to operate, drilling proved to be a much more difficult task than planned. I could not fit a drill in the area to drill the holes with the mount in place, so i had to make a template to create the room I needed to drill the holes. Once the holes were drilled and the bolts were cut and checked for clearance my new Optima took its home.



The box will be made another day when time and materials allow, but for now the battery is securely mounted and I can now start the car, drive it around and work on some of the other more important matters. Now all I have to decide is what to address next....