12volt or not?

Jembow

Jembow

Senior Member
My battery just died. Is now the time to think of 12v? Bearing in mind this is a 23,000 mile original paint & interior car and bone stock otherwise.
 
It depends on if you want to keep your car "original" as Ford made it. If it's running fine on 6V keep it as it is. Converting to 12V will entail more than just changing the battery, as you know.
 
When everything is the way it is supposed to be, 6 volts is just as good as 12. IMO, it would be a shame to change in your particular car. Of the 5 cars I have that run flatheads, only 1, the avatar roadster, uses 12v.
 
Replace with an Optima 6v - good battery. I have had mine since 7/10. No problems and it has a lot punch.
 
Thanks for the opinions, my gut feeling is to stay 6v. I have an Optima on my Model A and that's the route I will go.
 
The car was designed for 6 V, it was built for 6 V, it operated for 60 + years just fine with 6 V.
If the car could actually vote and have a say in this discussion, I think it would prefer to stay the way it is. Everything is fine, new 6V (Optima) solves everything.
Changing everything would be your idea, not the car. Also no logic in doing that.
Looking at this another way, what would you think about having your grand kids deciding to uproot you and change everything in your life just because they wanted to.
I don't think that would go over so good.
Go out and ask the car what it wants.
Simple.
 
these days there is no reason to change unlike years ago when 6v was rare Now there is just so much available it doesn't make sense
 
Bone stock and original with good systems and just a bad battery. Yea I vote for getting the improved battery system, which I assume the battery mentioned is improved over a std 6 volt. Also If the wiring and all the systems worked prior to battery going south I sure would not plan to change. Changing to 12 volt requires a lot of things to be changed as mentioned.
Just two more pennies!
Sounds like a awesome car you have we need more pictures too!
Regards,
Chris
 
I considered converting my 1939 truck to 12 volt and finally decided that it worked back in 1939 so why change. Thus, I kept everything as stock as I possibly could. No regrets on doing that. When rebuilding the electrical wires, I soldered all connections. I kept the rebuilt generator and rebuilt coil and I haven't had any problems with starting. It does take more cranking after sitting through the winter, but once started, starts right up with 6 volt. Just my two cents.

I also wanted to share with fellow FordBarner's. I finally found a picture of my truck sitting in front of my parents house back in 1966?? Was truly a love to restore as it was the truck I learned to drive in. Hard to believe it has been 55+ years. A lot of the damage on the truck was the result of my brother. I remember my father putting snow in the bed in the winter to assist traction.
I also remember sitting on the fenders around the headlights.

Hope these pictures come through. Kind of a rookie in uploading pictures.

20201004_182708 (2).jpg
 
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