Thunder1
Well-known member
Rather than leave my battery exposed or tucked up under ther frame somewhere, I think I found a great way to hide it in plain view in the bed of my truck with the aid of a vintage WWII bomber radio signal generator case.
I found this one at a junk shop for $20.00 last week. When I found it I just liked it for the history of it. After looking at it I decided to open it up and see how hard it would be to adapt it. Luckily all the electronics are rack mounted so all I had to do was unscrew the 14 cover screws and pull the rack out. I want to use the face plate of course because of the vintage gauges, dials, and switches. So I disconnected all the wires and other attachment points from the back of the face plate. Then I carefully epoxied all the dials, gauges, and switches back in place so they wouldn't fall out or come loose. Rather than relying on all 14 stainless steel face plate screws to access the battery I decided to modify 10 of them (making them dummies) by cutting them off short and epoxying them back in their original holes. That leaves 4 screws that actually hold the face plate on the case. I plan on drilling the back of the case to run the cables and a battery cutoff switch and drilling the bottom so I can mount it in the bed. Originally it weighed about 80 lbs with all the hardware inside. Now it weighs about 8 lbs. Here's some pictures.
I'd like to hear some feedback ok? Never mind the wrong dates on the pics. The camera hasn't been reset in a while!
Thanks!
Thunder
I found this one at a junk shop for $20.00 last week. When I found it I just liked it for the history of it. After looking at it I decided to open it up and see how hard it would be to adapt it. Luckily all the electronics are rack mounted so all I had to do was unscrew the 14 cover screws and pull the rack out. I want to use the face plate of course because of the vintage gauges, dials, and switches. So I disconnected all the wires and other attachment points from the back of the face plate. Then I carefully epoxied all the dials, gauges, and switches back in place so they wouldn't fall out or come loose. Rather than relying on all 14 stainless steel face plate screws to access the battery I decided to modify 10 of them (making them dummies) by cutting them off short and epoxying them back in their original holes. That leaves 4 screws that actually hold the face plate on the case. I plan on drilling the back of the case to run the cables and a battery cutoff switch and drilling the bottom so I can mount it in the bed. Originally it weighed about 80 lbs with all the hardware inside. Now it weighs about 8 lbs. Here's some pictures.
I'd like to hear some feedback ok? Never mind the wrong dates on the pics. The camera hasn't been reset in a while!
Thanks!
Thunder
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