Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana ROTM - DEC - Complete Resto.- G&B 176

Restoration of the Month (ROTM) is starting early this month once again due to the upcoming holidays. I will be unavailable for 2 weeks during the Christmas Holiday and I want to make sure we still have a good ROTM

This month we will be featuring a restoration, from start to finish, of a G&B 176 Visible Gas Pump. Neal Dunn has worked very hard on this restoration and was kind enough to share the many photo's he took along the way. Neal says that he has learned many important lessons while doing this project and he will be sharing his way of doing things and the important lessons he has learned.

For those of you who have not restored a visible and may be thinking about it, this ROTM may come in real handy. These pumps are very challenging, expensive, and extremely heavy. It takes a tremendous amount of patience and time. I should know since I restored this exact same model pump earlier this year. It was a great experience and very rewarding.

The way we will run this ROTM is: I will post the pictures for Neal. Neal will then comment on what he did and learned. Every couple of days we will do this until it's done. (There are a total of 37 pictures). If you guys have questions or comments in between, by all means, share your secrets and ask your questions. This is what this site is all about...asking questions and sharing your knowledge...helping the hobby!!!

So here is Neal's first 5 pictures...

[This message has been edited by pollyman (edited 12-10-2004).]

This Gibert & Barkley model 176 belongs to a good friend of mine, he wanted me to restore it so I figured I'd go ahead and get a visble over and done with just to see what they're about. I'll tell you what they're about; TOUGH!.
This pump was in good shape, there was a few dings in the sheet metal, one skin missing (the door skin) and all of the original stuff was there, even the cotton hose.
Of course the first thing I did was to disassemble it, making a few drawings to help me when it went back together and sandblasted everything except the glass cylinder. Immediately after blasting I blew the parts off good and sprayed on one coat of primer. As many of you well know, rust will set in pronto after sandblasting.
More to come.
Also, if there are any particular questions feel free to ask.
Till later!

Neal

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[This message has been edited by pollyman (edited 12-12-2004).]

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Picture 12

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Picture 14

OK you guys are scaring me. I have been thinking awhile about doing a visible but I keep hearing how tough they are so I have not done one. I am currently on my fourth pump which is a tall Tokheim 39. I have also done a Bowser 575, Tokheim 300, and a National 64 and have enjoyed doing them all. What is the hard part about a visible? They don't look too bad but that can be deceiving. I have a Wayne 615 that needs some work and has no cylinder and a G&B 176 that is in pretty nice shape with an original cylinder. I will watch this post with interest. Maybe next winter a visible will be on the list as I have several people wanting me to do one of those for display.

After sandblasting the skins I put on a heavy coat of laquer primer. REMEMBER- you can alway put anything over laquer primer (or any relative in the laquer family). However you can't paint any laquer item over other paints. The laquer thinner freaks out most unlike systems. There are a few exceptions though, just talk to your paint guy. The thing I like about laquer primer is it dries so fast. In normal conditions you can spray it and sand it 30 minutes later.
I decided to go ahead and paint the inside of the skins to get that out of the way. A very smart guy on this site told me to use a water based enamel. Hard-headed me used oil based Rustoleum, worked well until some of it got on the other side. Down the road it softened up and gave me a fit when I shot urethane primer on the outside of the skins. The reason I used urethane primer on the outside was it has a thicker buildup versus the laquer primer (6 mils versus 1.5 mils). Keep in mind that the main reason I shot laquer primer first was to get something on the metal right after it's sandblasted to keep it from immediately rusting.
One of the above pictures shows the rig I made to treat the bolts to be painted. If you paint over a standard plated or galvinized bolt the paint will eventually flake off. I got some good info off this site so here's how I handled this;
* Sandblast the parts (bolts, washers, etc.)
* Degrease the parts (I use electrical contact cleaner in an aerosol can, dries real quick)
* Prime with a self-etching primer (NAPA sells this in a spray can)
* The parts are now ready for paint when you are.
More to come!
Fell free to ask any questions if I fly right over something.
Thanks!

Neal

You put laquer rite on the bare metal? I thought you had to use a self etching primer or epoxy?
Thanks
brandon

besgar, I put laquer primer right on the bare metal. It's a trick I learned when I was a Navy Seal! LOL!!
Actually I'm not sure what today's "tech laws" state but so far as etching goes I believe the sandblasting does the etching. In my younger days, my first paint job was on a 1975 Trans Am, I did it just like this, regarding the primer on bare metal. That's what all of the gurus told me to do. After the paint job I kept the car for seven years and the paint job remained nice.
Thanks for the interest!

Neal

To continue on with this ROTM topic, I sandblasted, primed and painted the cylinder bolts with aerosol yellow Rust-O-Leum enamel. That yellow matched my yellow I was going to use pretty darn close.
On the skins I straightened the metal as best as I could using whatever necessary, pliers, an oak block and hammer, etc. I then shot another coat of laquer primer on to show the flaws and traced them with chalk. I then applied bondo, sanded with 60 grit and shot another coat of primer. I then marked the flaws again and used spot putty. After sanding with 80 grit I put on a heavy coat of urethane primer. The urethane primer takes longer to dry (approx 3 hours) but gives a thicker buildup and sands really good.
I sanded the urethane with 150 grit, 220 grit then 320 grit. I blew the skins off real good, wiped them down with a tack rag then applied two coats of no-sand sealer. I then painted the blue base color and let it dry overnight. The next day I masked off everything which I wanted to stay blue, preparing for the yellow paint.
The paint system I used on this was PPG brand, base/clear.
More to come.

Neal

More Pictures for Neal!!! Thanks

Last one!!!

Okay, winding this ROTM down, after painting the second color, Volvo yellow (that's what it turned out to be after matching it up), I let the pumps sit for a day then shot the clearcoat on it. If there had been any runs, trash, etc. in the basecoat it would've been wet sanded. For a bad run I start out with 600 grit and work up to 1500. By the way, when wet sanding out a problem on the basecoat you don't have to repaint it unless you sand through the paint. Even if that happens you can just spot paint the flaw, no need to paint the whole pump.
The tech sheet said I had up to five days to shoot the clear, any more than that and I would have to scuff the paint with either extra fine Scotchbrite or 1200 / 1500 grit sandpaper. I wiped the pump off with a nice clean rag, then went over it with a tack rag. I then shot the first coat of clear on and five minutes later when I went to shoot the second coat, a piece of newspaper I had put under the base to protect the floor had blown up and stuck to the tacky clear. Being I had already mixed up all of my clear in the gun and having none left I was panicking. Being this clear has hardner in it, it WILL set up in a gun, the tech sheet said 1 hour (I think). I unplugged the gun, put it in a cooler with a little water and ice and it didn't set up on me, thank goodness.
I peeled the newspaper off, cussed a little more then put a heat lamp shining on my foul handy work. Approx 2 hours later the clear had hardened enough for wet sanding so I did the 600, 1000, 1200 , 1500 thing and was back to normal. I took my COLD gun out of the cooler, poured the paint into a big clean plastic cup, shot my heat gun on it for about a minute, poured the clear back into the gun through a strainer (ALWAYS use a strainer!!) and went back to shooting clear. I ended up with three coats of clear on it and let it dry for a day.
Regarding the base/clear system, when I say let it dry for a day actually it dries within a couple of hours. I do like to leave it alone until the next day though so the paint can actually harden up. I'll next talk about buffing but let me say this before I forget it, depending on the brand of clear you use, you can wait too long and buffing it can be tough. Once the clear truly hardens (1 - 3 days) it can be quite hard to deal with.
The next step after the clear has been applied it the final finish. Sure, the pump looks good and slick but this'll make it even better. When I say better I'm meaning a more uniform gloss with no little bumps or specks. Wet sand any runs or trash out just like the above instructions on the basecoat. When all flaws are gone wet sand the entire pump with 1000, 1200, then 1500 grit. Wipe the pump down good when going to the next grit. Also VERY IMPORTANT, anytime you're wet sanding and you feel something scraping STOP. It's easy to get a piece of trash, grain of sand, etc. between your work and your paper. Wash, wipe, check or change your paper and carry on.
It doesn't look like I'll finish the ROTM up on this post (much more to say, typing fingers getting fatigued) but I do want to talk about the next step, buffing.
I use a Porter Cable buffer with a speed dial and I keep it on it's lowest setting. Some people prefer the wool pads, some perfer the foam pads, I use them both. The first buff will be with a wool buffing pad using super fine polishing compound (I use one made by Turtle wax). When finished wipe off with a damp rag, put on a wool polishing pad and buff with what's called medium-cut cleaner. I use McGuiars's (not sure how it's spelled) brand on the rest of these. Next is a foam pad using swirl remover, then finally another foam pad using machine glaze. When buffing is completed use a soft toothbrush and a cup of water to remove any of these remaining compounds from the nooks and crannies. Then wipe the pump down well.
More to come, thanks for looking!

Neal

Great job Neal!!!
Pump came out nice. I really like the colors and the way you separated them on the pump.
I know it is a lot of work, I restored one like it about 10 years ago.

Great post good info for all.

GasPumpRob

THANKS gaspumprob! I can say this, "it was kinda tough but I enjoyed every second of it"!
Merry Christmas to all!!

Neal

This is my final post for this topic;

After the painting is complete, I am now tasked with assembling this baby. My ceiling height was two inches shorter than the height of this pump (less globe) so regarding assembly it had to go somewhat horizontal. I cleaned the cylinder as follows;

1- paper towels and laquer thinner
2- laquer thinner and Scotch Brite pads
3- Windex and Scotch Brite
4- paper towels and Windex

I recommend being very careful throughout the assembly process. I dropped a screwdriver while installed the "Contains Lead" signs and knocked some paint off. That called to about two hours worth of touchup. I buffed the nozzle and all of the other metal items. On the cloth hose I scrubbed it with water and Brillo pads, allowed it to dry for a day then whitened it with Kiltz and white shoe polish.
I lastly applied the original water transfer decal. I had six of these and felt I could surely get one out of six to work okay. Believe it or not the first one worked out perfect! It was dated (I think) 1965.
In closing lest me says this, I am by no means a pro at this. There are many many fellow oldgassers that know a lot more about restoring pumps than I do. On many of my steps I probably do some things that are not necessary but due to my ignorance I do them anyway (like all the wetsanding and buffing steps, etc.) and this is mainly because I am still learning. Also many of the things I addressed here were things I didn't have a clue about but thanks to my questions on oldgas and the answers from the oldgas giants I was able to tackle and succeed.
Please fell free to ask any questions which I didn't cover.
Sincerely,

Neal

[This message has been edited by gas pump freak (edited 12-19-2004).]

In a nut shell here's a few things that I learned on this pump that have helped with my petro restoration "continuing education";
1- Don't let foreign paint (as in the inside paint that you don't see unless you open the doors) be noncompatable with the exterior finish.
2- To remove a cylinder, put laquer thinner or MEK in a sray bottle, shoot the top seal, wait 10 minutes, repeat until the bond gives way. Tap on the top with a wooden hammer butt but BE CAREFUL! After the top comes off repeat the same for the bottom.
3- Scotchbrite and Windex does a good job cleaning glass.
4- A toothbrush dipped in H2O does a good job removing compund from nooks and crannies.
5- Aerosol Kiltz then white shoe polish does a good job in refurbishing a cotton hose.
6- Use chalk to outline the flaws between priming/filling.
Thanks for looking!

Neal

Good Job Neal. Thanks for all the steps and tips. They will definitely come in handy. Hope you have a Merry Christams. ~Jason