Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Sinclair Station- The Renovation begins

I'm with your wife also. Leave the patina. White paint just says you are trying to cover up something---- just my 2 cents.

Update- roof is on! Yay! No more leaking. They managed to get on the decking and tar paper before the bottom dropped out, so a full day of rain happened. Of course that leaked through everywhere, but it actually helped "demo" some of the ceiling in the office area. That is almost complete now- the ceiling is heavy! Metal mesh lath with concrete/plaster.
Looked over the bay windows again and had a 48-years of experience glass man come out and he said "no problem" so we're going to replace every pane of glass in all 6 of the bay/back office windows. And meeting with a glass company this morning to get measurements and an estimate for the office glass re-do.
It's coming along. Having it "dried-in" is a big help.
Should be getting interior and exterior pressure washing done this week or next.
Received my shipment of replacement (original reclaimed) roof tiles last week. Found a guy with 5 million reclaimed tiles and he had everything we needed to replace the tile roof. Now just need to find someone that knows how to install them....

And you guys are right- we're going to leave the patina ceiling

Thanks for the update. It's amazing how much progress has been made so far!

Cool project. The original signs are somewhat common but prices on nice clean porcelain is strong right now. I would go with original signs if possible.

Good luck

Wes

That's my intention- based on "scars" on the building it looks like I need 3 large (for the canopy) SINCLAIR signs, then maybe 2 vertical Pennsylvania or Opalene. Not sure I'll be able to secure them all, so maybe 2 large then a "ring sign" on the front. I definitely want the "Washing" and Lubrication" ones, though....

That's awesome I could live out rest of my life there.i have a 14'roof topper would look sweet on top of spaghetti there.

What a cool project!!! Keep
Up the good work!

Rob

Last week made a little more progress on the station- complete pressure wash of the outside and inside the bays. A lot of the bad paint came off, and subsequent to drying out it looks like it would benefit from another round of spraying inside the bays so that's coming up pretty soon. Shifting work to the windows now- I know it seems like I'm bipolar on some of this but we did decide to keep the old metal windows in the bay, the back storeroom and the bathrooms. Found a local guy that retired with 48 years experience in glasswork and he's going to start replacing every pane in the windows next week. A couple of the windows were rusted out along the bottom, but I think I've come up with a fix that'll work. Spent a couple hours yesterday evening with a hammer and chisel, chipping out the concrete where the metal frame used to be. Used a grinder to cut off the bottoms of the frame and have one of the windows getting close to ready. A piece of 1 1/2" square tubing fits nicely in the hole, and 1/4"x1/4" angle, when welded to the 1 1/2" tubing, will provide a good base for the window to sit on.
I've never seen concrete like the bases of the windowsill. Hard as granite and had all sizes of flint pebbles in it. Made for interesting chiseling.

One of the "good" windows, then the two "not-so-good" ones....

Really like what your doing here ! Man” s/ Ladies dream getaway . Thanks for posting your progress . Look forward to seeing more .

More progress- window guy is doing great work breathing life back into the old bay windows. They are almost all cleaned out now and, once they're wire brushed will be ready for the new glass.
Had a guy make one full pass through with a pressure washer and a lot of the paint is coming off. Let it sit a couple of weeks and I bit the bullet and bought a pressure washer and have been working my way around the bay again. It's going to be ready for paint pretty soon, hopefully. Working on spec-ing out the bay doors now, it's taking a little bit of work since most of the suppliers are nowhere close to local.
Knocked out the partition wall between the bay and the office and it really makes a difference. Going to go back in the opening with some double-pane glass. Evolving plans again, we've decided to re-do the ceilings in the office/storeroom/bathroom area after foaming. The ceiling will give it a much cleaner, original look and will definitely help with energy efficiency.

You have made quite a bit of progress! That station is cleaning up nicely. Thanks for the update.

More progress- the windows have now been painted and ready for glass to start going in this week. The color really "pops" and will be very nice against the new white walls when they're done.
Also tore out the old "countertops" that were in the office area to get ready for the window replacement- found a few termites so I'm glad I did expose them. Ordering of the bay doors should happen today- talked to the supplier on Friday and they said we're looking at a 3-4 week delivery time.
I took a heat gun to the brown paint on the "Men's room" door and it's beautiful wood underneath, so I am hoping I can get it completely stripped and back to it's original glory. Interesting that the men's room was inside the office area and the ladies room is outside- I guess there were fewer ladies needing accommodation back in the 30's...
I also tried the heat gun on the transom windows- they are ridged glass and, over the years, the owners had painted BOTH SIDES, but the paint didn't melt away like I had hoped. Still working on what to do there.

First, super restoration project and love your restoring a piece of Americana.
Understand you want original Sinclair, Washing, and Lubrication porcelain signs.

Consider having a local painter/artist paint on the building surface(s) scale sized painted signs.
Then as you can acquire originals, hang them directly over each hand-painted place holder.
Find a local high school art department or local artist that needs some work during CV19 times.

This would provide a nice look/theme on the building while giving you time to acquire all the original porcelains.

I'm following. Very cool!

I’d like to find the original signs- that’s a given. There was a local artist that did a lot of building lettering and murals in a nearby town, but I haven’t seen him around lately. The “sign-searching” will start in earnest pretty soon, but there seems to be a lot of folks out there that are fond of Sinclair stuff...