Well we were definitely not busy at work so after I cleaned the interior out, I decided to pull out my old airbox. We put just a filter on a while ago but i wanted to keep the airbox just in case. So while removing it, it reminded me that my battery tray was being eaten alive, lol.
My old battery cracked and started to corrode the paint. I tried fixin it once but I must have not gotten it clean enough.

This time I first used battery terminal cleaner and a wire bush and got it clean. I found out the ground that was on the tray was way corroded and i had to grind down the corrosion, get a new bolt, and run a thread chaser thru the "nut". Then I took a scotchbrite to it, degreased it with some brake clean and then shot some self etch, some undercoating, and finally some flat black. I think it turned out pretty good for the most part and I swear I can see a little difference in the lights. I still gotta check it with a meter.

A few pics of the damage.





All cleaned up and masked off


Shot with the undercoat


This would be the big oops of the day. I broke my negative terminal stud off inside the battery. Luckily there was enough sticking out to get at it with a vice-grips.


As much as I don't want to, I think the whole tray needs to come and get a new one cause it's starting to rust on the frame rail directly underneath.

-Seth

Common area.

I drilled it out, sandblasted the tray itself, repaired the area underneath, shot it all with undercoating then reattached the tray with self-tapping sheet-metal screws.

Not too bad of a job, and it's all hidden.

i did the same, only i used the paint on/roll on undercoating. actually one of my favorite upgrades i did to the car. i know you cant even see it with the battery in there but rust makes me cringe.

3m masking tape ftw! lol looks like you caught it at a good time, now slap an optima battery in there and you'll never have an issue again



www.driftnamiperformance.com

Could a rusty battery tray cause your headlights to mess up? Because a month or so ago, my low beams would stay on really dim when the car was off even though the headlight switch was turned off. When I would turn the car on & turn the headlights on, only the passenger low beam would come on at regular brightness & the driver low beam would turn off.

All of a sudden one day, the lights would be off like they should when the car was off. I noticed that my battery tray & wire(ground wire?) look really corroded & rusty in the front left corner so I used some baking soda to clean it. My driver low beam still doesn't work even after replacing the bulb. Is it more likely a bad headlight switch or a bad battery tray? So I should try sanding down the tray, degreasing it, and spray it with undercoating? How can I fix the wire(ground wire?) that attaches to the front left corner of the tray? Is that an easily replaceable wire?

Joe Schulte wrote:Common area.

I drilled it out, sandblasted the tray itself, repaired the area underneath, shot it all with undercoating then reattached the tray with self-tapping sheet-metal screws.

Not too bad of a job, and it's all hidden.

That's a pretty good idea. I've even debated just taking the metal one out and fabbin up a plastic one from a different car to go in there.

z yaaaa wrote:i did the same, only i used the paint on/roll on undercoating. actually one of my favorite upgrades i did to the car. i know you cant even see it with the battery in there but rust makes me cringe.

Exactly

Steve-O wrote:3m masking tape ftw! lol looks like you caught it at a good time, now slap an optima battery in there and you'll never have an issue again

lol, ya, and we go thru it like candy at work - Optima is definately in the future but unfortunately no work=no money where i'm workin

Chris99z wrote:Could a rusty battery tray cause your headlights to mess up? Because a month or so ago, my low beams would stay on really dim when the car was off even though the headlight switch was turned off. When I would turn the car on & turn the headlights on, only the passenger low beam would come on at regular brightness & the driver low beam would turn off.

All of a sudden one day, the lights would be off like they should when the car was off. I noticed that my battery tray & wire(ground wire?) look really corroded & rusty in the front left corner so I used some baking soda to clean it. My driver low beam still doesn't work even after replacing the bulb. Is it more likely a bad headlight switch or a bad battery tray? So I should try sanding down the tray, degreasing it, and spray it with undercoating? How can I fix the wire(ground wire?) that attaches to the front left corner of the tray? Is that an easily replaceable wire?

I don't think a bad ground would cause those kind of problems but i could be mistaken. It's definitely not gonna hurt to fix the ground. It's all up to you, but ya, i'd clean it really good, scuff it up, self etch, then undercoat or just paint. Idk if it's easily replaceable but it was pretty easy to clean up. Just remove it, remove paint/corrosion from tray under ground, and from the ground, make sure the bolt is "de-painted" and you should be good to go.


I did find that my system is now at a perfect 14.4 volts at idle. Before I was only hitting between 13.6 and 13.8.

I did another project today too. I'll have pics up in a little bit.

-Seth

***If a mod sees this, can they change the title to "a few little fixes" thanks***

K, so once again, no work at work so I first started the day by making a new paper towel holder for my roll cart (which you can see in some of the pics, lol) and then I decided to modify my cruise control bracket.
I put one of the GM strut bars in and ever since I've basically had my cruise control kinda jimmy rigged. I couldn't ever get the hole to line up for the strut bolt so it was held with basically a fender washer. So today i decided to modify it and get it to fit.

For some reason I didn't get a before or after pic, lol. I thought I got an after pic but it must have not saved. I'll have to get one later.

Anyways...

You can see here where I drilled a hole earlier to mount a hood switch for my alarm (didn't work)


You can see here the stock hole for the bolt to go thru and those gouges in the top corner is where it was held on by the washer.


I just ground the paint of in prep for welding but I ended up actually cutting most that off, but you can see the little paper template I used to make an extension piece.


The extension piece made from the template.


Said piece sitting on the strut bar.


Skip a few steps of aligning and cutting and the stock braket and the extension are welded together.


Welds cleaned up on the front side.


Welds cleaned up on the back side.


In place after everything is ground down, and sandblasted, ready for paint.


The fixed bracket in self etch primer.


The fixed bracket in flat black.



Overall I think it turned out pretty good. I'll try and remember to get a final after shot tomorrow.


And finally, a couple shots of my car with a viper we had in the shop.





-Seth

Looking good Seth, IM lucky enough to not have any rust on my battery try area, *knock on wood*.
iM digging the crusie relocate, better than mine, which is just moved over one bolt hole on the cruise bracket and cut off so it dont hit anyhtign elese, lol

what was the viper in for?



www.driftnamiperformance.com

i dunno. but hopefully seth didnt touch it. lol.. it could end up in shambles like his car.

I would have used POR-15 instead of the under coating.

I might do what joe said above because I know mine needs to be redone, if not then relocate the battery to the trunk.

Scorpio1 bishes... wrote:Looking good Seth, IM lucky enough to not have any rust on my battery try area, *knock on wood*.
iM digging the crusie relocate, better than mine, which is just moved over one bolt hole on the cruise bracket and cut off so it dont hit anyhtign elese, lol

Ya, that's essentially how mine used to be mounted too, lol.

Steve-O wrote:what was the viper in for?

Front bumper repair and repaint. The lower part had decided to face off against somethin and lost, lol. It's been fixed before and it's got it's fair share of problems. You can't really see it in the pics but the hood to bumper gap is nasty.

Cody@RDFabs.com wrote:I would have used POR-15 instead of the under coating.

I might do what joe said above because I know mine needs to be redone, if not then relocate the battery to the trunk.

Not worth spendin the cash for the POR-15 imo. I did all this stuff at no cost to me. Ya, I might relocate mine to the trunk too. That's the first thing that popped into my head, to just move it to the trunk and not have to deal with it, lol. But that'll have to wait.

-Seth