VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Battery in a 48 Aerosedan

circle Listed for '53/'54 Corvette Now what

I would call and talk to these guys.

Since Dale has a bow-tie, maybe he has enough connections to make that the offical battery for '48.

What do you think about that Dale???

Hi Jay,

The sticker I have is the DELCO with Rubber Separators ' Hard Rubber Case above and ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT LINE under and Final Line: A General Motors Product. The base sticker is black with all the words Yellow.

The yellow lettering was not used on the production Delco or earlier Chevrolet batteries. In a picture the Delco, etc. will not show so they highlight it in yellow.
The Delco battery had minor changes during its life time. It would be almost impossible to pin=point a particular battery/year.
The 12 V battery also underwent minor changes. In 1955 it had just the yellow ring on the filler cap. In 1956 the entire cap was yellow. The 12 V also did not have the lettering painted.

Hey guys! If you look at the judging manual, it says that any aftermarket battery with a brand name other than GM issued is a mandatory 5-point deduction. It says beware of products which "mask" a generic battery to make it look like an original Delco. A later model Delco battery that is not correct for the vintage of vehicle is a 2-point deduction.

So, that being said, I think it is generally accepted that batteries like those produced by Antique Auto Battery Company that are all black and have Delco or Chevrolet on them are of the era for '48 Chevys and don't get any deductions in VCCA judging.

I have never been judged in a VCCA meet...Has anyone lost points for their battery and why???

If the battery is fairly easy to see and the judge is knowledgeable then a deduction is common. For batteries under the floor boards it is rare to have points deducted. Mostly because there is not enough light to see the battery clearly.

As I mentioned in my last post, if you have, for example, a non-GM badged battery, like an Interstate battery in your '48, there will be a mandatory 5-point deduction. Since the judging criteria is that your car is supposed to look like it did when the dealer delivered it, the battery needs to look like a 40s era battery - thus the Delco & Chevrolet logo repros out there. From my limited experience, most folks who are going to have their cars judged will spend the extra $100 to get an authentic looking battery. After spending $20,000 on a restoration, why skimp on the battery?

I consider that to be unfair. No one ever heard of a flashlight!

It is only unfair if the vehicles in a single judging class are evaluated differently. Each judge is instructed (several times) to be consistent within a class. That for instance means batteries in all vehicles in a class will either be subject to a deduction or not. Best of Show vehicles are rejudged by a specific judging team (typically the judging leaders).

Useing Genes info for the correct battery for the 48,the closest that I have found is the Delco circle all black but does have yellow rings on the caps...

You might be on to something. 1948

Russell this is what I have found so far

Yes I saw that one also $$. Are you thinking about maintenance free?

The G1 circle from AAB is exactly the same (all black case) didn't know if you knew this or not. Don't know the price.

Here's the response from one of the vendors

Bruce,
We have the Delco “circle” cases,however we do not have black Delco six volt battery caps. On 7/16/1962 General Motors head designer Bill Mitchel sent a directive to Delco Remy that he wanted all Delco assembly batteries with yellow caps to be changed to black. The reason for this was that he stated that the yellow caps were distracting from the beauty of the engine. I have been in this battery business 35 years. I have never seen a black Delco six volt battery cap.
Since our six volt batteries are now maintenance free and they omit no acid fumes you could paint the caps black.
Tom

That's a great looking battery... What did they say the cost was...?

Very spendy???$400.+ shipping..to Seattle $63.

OMG

Wow!! The Antique Auto Battery Co. Bowtie battery was only $225.00

Dale,this is the price for the Delco circle not the Delco Chevy Bowtie @$285. you will see the prices are way different,both maitainance free

...and mine isn't maintenance free.

Yes, Bruce has it right.

I called AAB today with a few questions of my own. I was wondering why the G-1 Delco had 550 CCA, but the G-1 bowtie and G-1 circle had 625 CCA, even though they are the same size. I was told that all that info is now mute. They no longer sell the acid battery. They look the same but are all now maintenance free with 700 CCA. The bowtie and standard Delco are $285, Circle is $365 from AAB. $400 over @ Restoration.

I talked to Deloris, I think, and she told me her husband started the company many years ago and did a lot of research to get the batteries as close to correct as he could. She did confirm that the bowtie was good up to '42 like Gene said. However, she thought the circle was only for the '53-early'55 Corvette (see below). The standard DELCO was right for me? Remember page 7 from above? I bought the standard G-1 from them back in 2005.

I know Bruce wants the "correct" battery as would I "if" I wanted to be judged. However, I have not found the smoking gun. I have found a few magazine advertisements from '48 that show the circle battery.

I think The Delco Circle would be the way to go?

Any aftermarket battery with a brand name other that GM issued is a mandatory 5-point deduction for vehicles after 1922. (Taken from the Judging Manual) In a 1000 point system, that's not much when you compare a $75 from Tractor Supply Company vs the Delco script battery at $200, $300,or $400 with equal performance from both.

I think Dale has answered the correct battery theory and I think I will stick with that...Having a truely correct car is my goal and judging of the car comes second