FWIW, I tried again to order an R-79 from
Restoration Battery last week to no avail. The old guy told me on Monday that he is in the midst of
closing his company down as he can no longer get the batteries to continue on. The only ones who were making the restoration batteries were
Antique Auto Battery out of Youngstown Ohio, but the daughter and err to the company has been partying for the past year and has driven the company into the ground while failing to deliver any stock to those who they used to supply.
I heard last week the Antique Auto Batteries were ringing up 10's of thousands of charges on other suppliers credit cards and were no longer fielding telephone calls from anyone. Sounds to me like they are one step away from bankruptcy and disappearing all together. Apparently their battery cases were all being made in Mexico where the molds and tooling are located and that they had failed to renew licensing efforts with GM, Ford and others where they can no longer continue having batteries made.
I am sure there's more to the story but the future looks bleak for anyone wanting an older looking battery now days.
