For those who are thinking about the replica Autolite Battery covers I have discovered several things over the last week or two. 1) There are two different versions of the cover. One is a Tiawanese knock-off ... and one is licensed by Ford. The knock-offs are found on eBay, Mustangs Unlimited, CJ-Pony Parts, etc .. and cost $30. They are a single piece of molded plastic. The filler caps are just the black plastic painted red. The Red caps and lettering is not bright ... but sort of dingy and dark. I had originally bought mine from Mustangs Unlimited. After reading about them on BOSS302.com I discovered the Ford Authorized version. The only two vendors I found that sell them are California Mustang and NPD. These are $40 covers. The Red Filler caps come in a seperate bag and are molded in bright red plastic. You snap all 6 onto the cover before installation. They spin freely once snapped in and appear to be the real deal when installed. The Autolite and Sta-ful logos are a nice bright red on the licensed cover. 2) With the cover in place it makes the battery 1/4 inch wider than a factory 24F battery. A true Autolite 24F was 6.75 inches wide. The cap is 7 inches wide. I found this to be true of both the licensed version and the knock-off. This means that the early style hold-downs 70/71/72 will not fit on the cap since they have 6.75 inch spacing. For some reason the later model hold-downs are 7 inches and fit fine. The BOSS 302 guys observed the same thing with their hold-downs .. which are identical to Maverick hold-downs. I ordered a repop of the correct 1971 Maverick hold-down and will need to trim it and make it fit. Here is a picture of the knock-off ... Here is a picture of the licensed version which I got from NPD today ...
If you are into Optima Gel batteries ... there is a company that takes the guts out of an Optima and puts into in a reproducton AutoLite case .... search the BOSS302.com messages boards for more info ... They are like $305! Supposedly when you unscrew the caps off the reproducton case you can see the Red Top Optima underneath ..
Nah.... .....not now. Too many expenses right now with baby girl on the way. Heck, I can't even keep up with you on stickers! Now, go make sure your interior light buttons in the door jambs match!!
Hmmm ... I don't see anything that looks like a Duraspark Box I'm running a Billet Pertronix Dizzy in there ....
Looks good! Sean, that's the voltage regulator. I attached a pic of what the Duraspark box looks like. There are some variation's depending on brand. Mine's a cheapo one, I carry a spare in the trunk.
the nockoff looks like crud. i think i could paint it better with a paint brush. the new one looks worth the extra 10 bux
All done .... used a slightly modified Mustang Fender Apron Bracket and a repop clamp I got from Perogie which just was already 7" spacing so no modification necessary to fit the Autolite Cover! I also removed the warning label since none of the Factory pictures I have of Maverick engine compartments show the warning label on the Positive post ... I am now finished with the Battery are restoration ... looks just like factory now ... except most of the Boss 302 guys replace the repop filler caps with original factory caps since you can see in the picture below they are larger ...
