Battery Cell Plug Colours?

[dutch]

I have some old battery Cell Plugs one being  a Delco Eye one and they are all very darkly coloured red on the script and circle that is in the centre of each.  Lately I've been seeing pictures posted that show the same script and broken circle painted with a very brightly version of red or yellow (colours depending on the year and application I assume)..
My question is.. I don't recall ever noticing such bright colours on these plugs from brand new when I bought and owned brand new cars in the late 60's through the early seventies..
Is this somewhat more of the 'restoration graffiti' that has crept in here and made recently reproduced colours on these much brighter than they were actually back in the day - or has my mind just faded (pardon the pun) so much that I have forgotten that they were so brightly coloured back 40 or more years ago?
I also have one very brightly scripted one - so I'm trying to decide if I should brighten mine all up to match what the current trend seems to be or leave them the dark red colour they currently have - Thanks Randy   

[68camaroz28]

Hi randy! How's our brother 68z doing! Both our 68Z's have the same day built motor! The Y55 battery had yellow colored caps and R59 battery had red. Late service replacement y55 had red caps for some reason. Since y55 has reverse polarity and not repro'd many put a repro r59 with the red caps. Even the negative cable small grd wire attached differently. Check last couple pages of my build thread.

[dutch]

Hi Chick.. Good to hear from you - yep she is doing fine I think... will know better tomorrow AM when I try and fire her up for the first time in the '16 year - thus the battery ??..
I wasn't so much worried about the model of battery that I should have, as these days I just find any plain old battery similarly sized (less the Delco logo and period correct markings) that will roughly pass appearance-wise and allows me to use the old Delco caps I have, so it looks reasonably like an OEM deal..
I was mostly asking and interested in the brightness of the logos and script on the caps themselves which in my case came off a OEM style reproduction battery that was purchased many years back out of Penn.
That battery (and many like it from what I've read) lasted only a couple of years and after it died I swore I wouldn't waste more $$'s on such crap and now just use the caps salvaged off it to for the most part give me a reasonable reproduction OEM look as I mentioned.
You have done so much perfect work in getting 'the twin' restored I wonder if you have ever come across a real OEM battery and found the colours on the caps to be darker than what is being reproduced and sold these days or more brightly coloured in comparison?
I would post a picture of mine - but I've never had any luck with photo attachments..

Thanks - Randy
 

[dutch]

Just read the last few pages now, as suggested on your very interesting (and long) reproduction thread and I must say the outcome of your project is stunning... as is I must admit the news that my car should also have yellow logoed cell caps and especially that the positive post should be correctly located nearest the fender and not the other way around that I always assumed was correct and saw dozens of pictures of.
Have you any idea if and when, or if it did - that the configuration changed to negative post on the fender side?
I'll have to obviously rethink my next battery purchase when it comes to polarity location and especially how to change my present cell cap colour selection - and apparently strive for some yellow that looks correct!
Thanks for your reply and especially all the time to do your restoration thread (which I haven't followed closely enough apparently) which would have answered my original question here today and saved everyone some time! Its obviously the standard for early '68 Z owners!!

Randy

[68camaroz28]

67, 68, and early 69 z28's all had the y55 reverse polarity battery and reason for grd wire being attached differently. 6 cyl camaro had reverse from norm polarity also.