Vintage Cars: battery dies, battery tender jr, test meter

Question
Don
I thought I had my 64 Pontiac 230 6 cyl working.
I installed a new battery and it ran good.
After not starting it for a few days,the battery was stone dead!
Nothing was left on inside,and the old radio doesnt work anyway.
My friend is going to come by with a 'tester' but I dont know what he will find.
Should I put a ground wire on the battery to the car or something?

Answer
First, if the battery isn't already grounded to the engine/frame, then nothing would work.

A battery won't die because of a bad connection, it will die because something is using juice that isn't supposed too.

First are you sure the battery was fully charged before you installed it?  If you bought it from a store and they didn't charge it, it could have been near dead to begin with.

Give it a good all day low power charge.

Your friend with the test meter should check for power flow with stuff turned off.  If you don't have a clock or a radio or lights on, then the car should be using NO electricity.

You may want to check your trunk like, courtesy lights, cig. lighter, clock and radio and see if anything is left on.

A good battery should stand up to a clock and sitting for a month or more, but for any vehicle that sits for a long time between uses, I recommend a Battery Tender Jr.  That is the brand name, and there are other brands, but I have had great luck with these.  The smaller Battery Tender Jr. works just fine, but the bigger version has a few more features.  here is where I get all mine:

http://www.accwhse.com/batteryt.htm

Don