Back in May of 2015 I purchased a pair of the Porsche Moll batteries (911-611-036-20) from our esteemed Ohio vintage parts supplier. I am doing a “correct” ‘70E restoration and wanted the vintage look as shown in the 700 mile ‘70S photos.

I had them filled at my local reliable NAPA and then charged one on my smart charger. All seemed good and the charger indicated fully charged. I then used the charged battery to test components in the electrical system as I tested and reassembled them into the car. All seemed good until I got to the snail horns. The recharged Moll would barely make them vibrate while the battery in my Honda Ridgeline whould make them honk correctly. Something funny there. This week I did some final checks on the electrical with the recharged battery and found the wipers barely move, the horns would only vibrate and the flashers were really slow. Something wrong with this “new” battery? I then ran jumper cable from my truck battery to the Porsche and everything worked as it should.

Since I don’t have a battery tester, I took the batteries back to NAPA for testing and recharge. The one I had been using overheated and the charge was aborted. Test showed only 6 volts and a bad cell. The second battery would only partially charge after 24 hours and tested at only 10 CCA compared to a rated 500 CCA. Both batteries bad.

I will be calling the battery supplier on Monday to see how I can be compensated. In the meantime, I need to explore another option for batteries. I have a single Sonnenschein in my RSR and have been happy with it.
Any suggestions on how to maintain the vintage look with a modern gell cell battery?