Aussie batteries

[Cambin]

A couple of years back I picked up a very rare 6volt rubber body ford battery and have never seen one again but today at our local swap meet ( flea market type thing) I picked up a 12 volt rubber body battery
So now I have a matching pair 6 and 12 volt rubber body batteries made in Australia by Dunlop

[Wayne Sheldon]

Those could probably be rebuilt and be better than anything you can buy new today!

Rebuilding batteries is a nasty job, but people used to do that.

[Cambin]

Yes wayne we have a place about an hour away that will do them but to do all that work to jamb them under the body away from site would be pointless I think

[Jem]

But you'd know it was there, giving you a warm glow

[Cambin]

True jem true

[Rob Patterson]

Ive been down here playing with old cars, especially T's, for a looooong time and this 68 yo Aussie has never seen one before.
Nice find. I wish it (or both) were mine.
Cheers,
Rob

[Alan Long]

G’Day Rob
I remember seeing one of those Batteries back in the 60’s when Dad (who worked for Ford in Fremantle) bought a 6V one
home for me. At that time old stock was being scrapped from the Dealer Parts Inventory. They were of course dry so had an indefinite life span. They also came with three bottles of “Ford” Acid. Can’t remember remember if it had made in Australia
on it but definitely had the Ford Logo.
Cheers Alan in WA

[Cambin]

I have spoken to a lot of elderly gentleman with T’s and A’s and none of them have seen them either so it makes them reasonably collectible
But to have a 6v and 12v I feel very lucky to own them
Thanks fellas
Cam

[Allan]

Nice find Cam. Your post prompted me to go on line and what I discovered may well explain why old timers with T's had never seen one. According to the site I was on, Dunlop opened their battery making facility at Sandringham, Vic, in 1948.

When I started out in Ts in the 1960's, a gentleman in an eastern Adelaide suburb was still building batteries using old rubber casings, and I had used a number of his rebuilds. The introduction of plastic cases has meant the death of such enterprises. My guess is that it is quite q while ago that battery plates were available to rebuild batteries.

Allan from down under.

[MichaelPawelek]

The problem with using them in the Northern hemisphere is that you have to mount them up side down and they leak acid all over the place.....

[BE_ZERO_BE]

Come on Mike.
It's all about perspective.
From the Southern half there are more "upsidedowners"
up here then there are down there.
Besides, once you convert the Metric Volts to American Volts they work just fine in any Model T.

[doodlebugt]

Bob,
These are pre 1975, so they will be Imperial volts, which are a little more than US volts. About 1.1 times I think.
Hope this helps.