As for an update... things have been a bit slow (and will be slow as I have a busy few weeks coming up), but I did manage to finish measuring the entire original battery. And I measured it down to the third decimal point on every little bit. I even made some trace rubbings with a pencil so I have actual size references should I need them.
My thoughts:
- The battery is VERY un-uniform. There are many places where things are not perfectly sized the same. I think the original casting of the battery was imperfect, and it didn't need to be really. So that gives me a bit of wiggle room, if I need, to fudge some things as in reality, some things were off a good .15 inches depending on where you measure it. When you get down to the decimals, most things were off .01-.08 between the different sizes. That being size, I tried to find averages in those cases to come up with a number that works while also noting the differences between the various points.
- The seams, as mentioned in my previous post, are perfectly aligned down the skinnier sides of the battery. This means that having a seam there for putting parts together will actually mimic the REAL thing.
- The star texture throughout the side walls is not in any pattern that I can see. they seem random and chaotic, sometimes almost overlapping. Where the seams are the stars are NOT aligned to continue from one side to another. Another great thing for 3D printing.
- The tar on the top of the cover is pulling upwards where the two terminals are. I assume this is from the repeated lifting of the battery by the terminals with the original (rare) battery handle they loaned me with the battery to move it. I took this into consideration and only measured the middle cell top as that one seemed to be still in its original place.
- The bottom of the battery has 'The Richardson Company' and 'Made in the USA', along with 'Patent Pending'. There's also a '4333 F' in a circle at the bottom. I'm not going to replicate those, but I did take photos and a pencil tracing just to have them.
I shot about 100 detailed shots of the battery in a mini studio-type setting. Here's a few I'll share for anyone who comes across this thread looking for photos of an original 1940 Ford Battery.
It's hard to see in this photo (I have better ones of it), but the caps on top, the FORD logo has a rounded edge rectangular impression surrounding it from the stamping process. One of the caps has this raised, the other has it indented. It's about a .005/.01 inch depth:
Here's the seam I was talking about and how the star texture does not align on either side:
I do want to mention again that I'm not going for a concourse battery here. That being said, I imagine this will be the most accurate battery, when done, made when I get all the details dialed in. Looking at all the repros that were out there, each one of them is missing major details compared to this battery. Like the U.S.A. in the large FORD logo, the star texture, the seams, etc.
