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Optima battery

Here's what I do....

I go to Summit and Jegs on-line and print off the page showing the price.

AutoZone stocks the different Optima batteries.

I then bring these pages down to my local AutoZone and have them price match it. The red shirt guys can't do this, but the management personnel can. They adjust the price down until the price of the battery (with tax) is lower than my cheapest on-line qoute.

I've got a pretty good working relationship with my local AZ guys, but it won't hurt for you to give it a shot in your area.

The BIG plus side to this..... if there's ever a problem with the battery, you can bring it back locally!

Let me know how it works out for you.
 
Funny, I was just reading some notes I made about the Optima 35 for Red, but really didn't like the idea of paying freight for a battery. That would make your johnson go limp big time.
Dave, your idea is well worth looking into. I might do that this weekend if I have the time.
 
I think I need the Optima 35 which is not a on the shelf item around here as far as I know, so getting my local autozone to participate might be an issue.
 
Its OK, I just compared the Autozone, Jegs and summit prices on-line, Autozone is $.05 more than summit and $2 less than Jegs. I got an old battery layin around so I wont have a core charge.
 
You can put a 34/78 (much more common Optima size) into a Mustang battery tray:) The original group size is 24, which is slightly longer and slightly taller. The 34/78 will need a spacer, which generally comes with the battery, in order to use the stock hold-down bolts. It fits my tray just fine.
 
Craig, went to AZ and got an Optima, it was 169.99, but they have a $25 mail in rebate good until 9/30/08......I got a 34/78.
 
"Fast68back" said:
Craig, went to AZ and got an Optima, it was 169.99, but they have a $25 mail in rebate good until 9/30/08......I got a 34/78.
Click to expand...

Wow, my $25 rebate showed up today, 12/15, although the check was dated 11/12.
 
"Fast68back" said:
"Fast68back" said:
Craig, went to AZ and got an Optima, it was 169.99, but they have a $25 mail in rebate good until 9/30/08......I got a 34/78.
Click to expand...

Wow, my $25 rebate showed up today, 12/15, although the check was dated 11/12.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's because the Post Office stopped using the Pony Express and are now using the Camaro Express...
 
One thing I learned since I did mine is that there's a smaller box available for Optima's.
The one shown here is a Taylor box, and you can see that it's really oversized for the Optima.
The other challenge with the big box, and maybe for any installation, is dealing with the uneven surface over the right rear frame rail.
The board I used helps with that and also raises it up off the frame rail to help get the flat surface up a bit so the battery can be slid back over that angled bumper support.

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Well...... technically speaking..... Joes box is mounted wrong. In order to get the box mounted to the frame rails, the box needs to be turned 90* so that the openings for the cables point either to the front or to the rear. In so doing, the all thread rods that secure the battery will not only drill through the skin of the trunks floorpan, but also through the much stronger rear frame rail.

Joe's correct in that Taylor makes three different size boxes.... one of which is specifically designed for the Optima RedTop series and fits the battery very nicely.

Here's a picture of the Taylor box mounted in my sons '68. This is NOT the box designed for the Optima RedTop. This box is a little bit larger and makes for a tighter fit in regards to the trunk hinge. The hinge clears okay, but getting the battery in and out of the box is a tight squeeze. The Optima designed box is not as high as this box and would fit much nicer. Notice the box is mounted so that both threaded rods mount directly into the frame rail. The box cannot be mounted rearward much more than this due to interference with the leaf springs shackle.

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I shot a couple more pictures of the battery boxes at lunch today.... The first one is the "unnecessarily large" Taylor box in my sons '68 FB. The second picture is the correct box for the Optima battery mounted in my '66 FB.

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Thanks Dave. Did you run the Positive cable two different ways? Looks like your sons runs under the car and yours runs through the interior?
 
Did you run the Positive cable two different ways? Looks like your sons runs under the car and yours runs through the interior?
Click to expand...

Yep. The routing under the car and then along the SFC and into the engine compartment was an easier install. I wanted to run mine on the inside to see how it would work out. It worked out fine, just two different ways of getting the same result.
 
Lots of ways to do it.
I ran mine in the sill plate area then over the heater/AC unit into the front wheel well.
 
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