NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW Technical questions and discussions, regarding anything related to the WWII jeep.
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Christophe Chevalet
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Christophe Chevalet » Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:53 am

Farrell
Great job!
This housing looking good! :D
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Michael O. » Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:18 am

Looking good Farrell!
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by W. Winget » Tue Jan 16, 2018 9:49 am

Farrell:
Is that orange or the color off on my monitor (cap color of red shows up fine) i.e. is the photo color off or was the label that shade of fire orange?
Looks great!
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Farrell Fox » Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:09 pm

W. Winget wrote:
Tue Jan 16, 2018 9:49 am
Farrell:
Is that orange or the color off on my monitor (cap color of red shows up fine) i.e. is the photo color off or was the label that shade of fire orange?
Looks great!
W Winget
Hi Winget,

It is "sunburst orange" that matches pretty well. I think it's within the range of an acceptable spectrum. Might be an ever so slightly lighter shade.

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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by DavidA » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:31 pm

Was looking at some old Life magazines and found this ad.
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David Aro - USN SEABEES '66-'70
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by roblenzz » Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:55 pm

How is the top coming along? I'm following this thread, currently looking for a cover for my Optima battery. That Optima is great but looks horrible in the engine compartment.
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Farrell Fox » Fri Feb 23, 2018 6:38 am

Ford GPWs at the Louisville, Kentucky plant, Aug.-Sept. 1944


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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Greaser » Fri Feb 23, 2018 7:17 am

Roblenzz-

Some serendipity on the case top.

I had 2 different meetings scheduled with a digital sculptor to model the top for me to 3d print and mold - and both our schedules ended up not lining up.

Farrell found a WW2 vintage Willard tractor battery that has the correct caps, intercell connectors and vents. While it was crazy expensive, it happened to be local to me and I will be picking it up on Sunday.

I will be able to make molds of the various components, then be able to scratch build cell covers to gang all these components and make a new mold from.

A step in the right direction. This wont be the last step though, as I will need to adjust the lower case mold for the inside top edge as well as an alignment support for the optima. That should get me to a workable prototype to try in my MB and Farrell's.

After that, I need to figure out how to produce these things in quantity... This is all an art project rather than an assembly line thing...
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by roblenzz » Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:06 am

I know what you mean by the art project thing. Like most of us on here I am a military collector and have a large US headgear display. I also like Captain America and wanted a helmet like the one he wore in the 1st movie (the one set in the WWII era) to display with my collection. I set about trying to find one to buy but did not like what was available so I made one of my own. I posted it on a movie prop forum and the demand for it went crazy. Had to come up with a way real quick to reproduce it and discovered a company called Reynolds Advanced Materials down in Orlando. They were extremely helpful in setting me up with some chemicals to make molds and different urethanes to produce my end product. This was my end result for my helmet and ended up making probably close to 50 of them. Good luck with the project, wish I could help out.
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Farrell Fox » Sun Feb 25, 2018 6:41 am

Ravenna Armory picked up an original dealer sample battery which will act as the model for making the top details. These include the red caps, safety fill vents, cell tops with markings and intercell connectors with markings. Can't get much better than original! Still a long ways to go.

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Last edited by Farrell Fox on Fri Aug 30, 2019 7:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Michael O. » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:35 pm

Very cool Farrell. I am definitely going to buy at lest 3 of these from you once they become available! Thank you for all you’re doing to bring these to market!
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by wynnski » Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:49 am

Hello Farrel
Do you know if we are going to get these batteries over here in the UK

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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Farrell Fox » Mon Feb 26, 2018 5:17 am

Until we have them here in the U.S. I can't answer that.
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by Boyso » Mon Feb 26, 2018 5:38 am

Great work Farrell!

I'm probably too late to the game but you could use photogrammetry to "scan" the various components, ie the casing, top and substract the new battery that's going in to figure out proper spacing and all.

Cheaper than trial and error, and certainly cheaper than our rates (I do 3D for a living :lol:)

You only need a good camera and hundreds of photo to make it work.
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Re: NOS Willard Battery Case SW-2-119

Post by wynnski » Mon Feb 26, 2018 8:08 am

Hello Farrel
Will the top be in the 'loose' form, i.e. not bonded to the case so that people can put their own battery in or will you be putting a battery in and bonding the top on?
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