R59 top post battery
 

On the original 1969 batterys where the caps yellow - white or red also the delco wording did it match the cap color or was it just black

Reddish orange originally..
The word DELCO was black and not painted when installed into a vehicle on the assembly line.
Over the counter taken out of the box batteries had the word Delco painted that matched the caps color.
Although my car is detailed restored to assembly line stock,I painted my DELCO wording to match the caps,as I prefer that intricate detail.
And no,it's not a topper.. :)

'

Good info Rick also car looks great!
Wasn't color representative of Cranking Amps w/ Yellow being less CCA's than Red also Green less than yellow?
On replacements, were all R-Series Red and all Y-Series Yellow as I was wondering in this recent Topper thread?:hmmm:
https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=155337
:beers:
~ Pete

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Thanks for the info

It looks better with Delco painted red.

Do the “eyes” go green/ yellow?

I assume you're talking about the Y-55's because I don't ever recall a Y-59. So yes the Y-55's are yellow and are less cranking amps. They are also reverse polarity (as they call them here) with the terminals reversed and would technically be a correct battery for a SB 69 Camaro for instance. Negative is closest to the radiator and where the hole is found on the core support for the little ground wire to attach off the negative cable.

I've always had a correct battery in our Z with the terminals reversed (technically the R59 wouldn't work anyway unless I modified the original battery cables because the ground wire to the core support isn't long enough to reach from the other side of the battery), so I just recently made my own Y-55 topper as there are none produced at this time. I started with an R-59 topper and switched the polarity insignia. My wife found a place that sold the correct decal that even came with a warranty card that I thought was funny. I painted the yellow accents myself even though the kit came with yellow decals. Pretty happy with the results.

Lotsa relevant battery info.
http://www.camaros.org/underhood.shtml#Batteries

I put Green Painters tape under mine, I simply bought a NOS Delco Eye cut it down and popped it in.

That's interesting. I never really thought about making the eye appear real.

I did go through the trouble to make a Y-55 topper complete with decal/tag and painted yellow. I like the idea of the eye trick. I may have to go back and play with that.

To replicate the eye, all you need is a short piece of glue stick and some green masking tape. It fits just right, and looks great. I did it on my R79 topper. Dale

Thanks Dale,

I assume the glue stick gives the appearance of a plastic lens. I never thought of that. I'll give it a shot :biggthumpup:

Larry

What position does it go on the battery? I mostly see the second one from the radiator side

Here it is, from a distance you couldn't tell if it is glass or not.

That looks pretty slick. How thick is that glue stick? Just enough to make it appear the eye is slightly down in there?

Glue stick is only about 1/2" or so long,- it can't be much longer, as it would hit the top of the battery. You can't see it in the pic, but I also drilled out the small hole in the top of the other caps to make them look authentic.

Yes there are y59’s and they used yellow caps. They were all over counter battery sales. But pick one up, gut it and change caps to r59 color and your set. I use sealed 500 plus cold cranking amps motorcycle batteries after gutting to place internally.

Looks good! I've been wanting to do that, but haven't gotten to it yet.

I turned my R59 topper into a Y55 (except for polarity) with a little Dupli-Color touchup paint plus a real Delco Eye I found online. Cut the bottom off the plastic site glass to be flush with the topper base, and painted the Delco Energizer lettering too, like an over-the-counter battery, since it looks so good like that. I used black tape to hide the top of the battery but I like the idea of green tape to mimic how the real eye worked. Was the green some sort of plastic indicator of battery health, or was the fluid in the battery itself just green? Showing my age here a bit as I've only ever had sealed batteries...

I made my Y55 just like that, and even added a warranty sticker my wife found.

I did have to modify my topper for the reverse polarity though because I actually have a (correct for my car) reverse polarity battery in the car (Napa still sells them)
I couldn't switch the battery because the little ground wire off the negative cable screws to the core support next to the radiator cap, not the fender as they did later in production. It's not long enough to move the battery cable to the other side of the battery.

Delco Eye thread I did on here 10 years ago for the R79W battery to add to this one.

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthre...y+topper+delco