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It's a bummer. The lead in a car battery and other maintenance free types isn't lead plates as we think of them. It's more of a spongy lead oxide material. Not to get too technical, but trying to smelt the lead back into usable form is kinda a PITA and releases small levels of what amounts to mustard gas.
The process CAN be done at home by someone with good tools and a working knowledge of chemistry - I'm no expert and haven't tried it myself, but from what I know I think it would be a rather large investment for a rather small return in product. Probably better to hack off the terminals and call it good.
I've thought about that one before - going into a junkyard and seeing if I can go to the battery container and take the lead terminals off the batteries they have that are headed for the recycler.
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