Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion give your opinion on my garage layout

i've finally scratched together all the stuff to decorate the front of the garage with the exception of few small parts & pieces. i'm aiming for a 30's-40's sinclair theme & hope to have the major stuff ready to put up over the winter & early spring. i'm going to have a new pad poured in the front of the overhead doors & will have the island poured at the same time. the old existing pad in the lower left will also be removed at that time & am planning reclaimed brick walkways where the maroon areas are in the pic. signage will be an early rectangular sign on the building & a 48" round H-C sign on a homemade pole already in place. i'll start the resto on the signs as soon as the 48" arrives (purchased from "notchcad") the round red dot between the doors is a 36" coke button over a vendo 83 that sits between the doors. a sel-oil cabinet will sit on the left side of the doors & a short gilbarco farm pump will be redone in "diesel" & sit at the right corner of the bldg. the far left corner will be a tokheim lubester (kerosene). the island will hold 2 gilbarco 96-c's & an island light (still looking for a pole,the top was purchased from tom buckles) i'll change the top's color from red to green to match the porcelain lights over the doors, but leaving it red in the illustration for contrast.

am i missing anything??

also, one of the 96-c's will be H-C, what should i do the other pump in? aircraft, ethyl or the old green & white striped logo??

all opinions welcome, good or bad sorry for the poor drawing, just did a quicky in "paint"...

something on the roof would be nice...just my 2cents.

If the exsisting pad is in ok condition, why not leave it in and if needed, connect it to your new pad, so you have a 'drive area' next to the pumps. It would be a place to park an old car as if they stopped to get gas. Just a thought.

Something on the roof would be nice. yep,like see rock city. Just kidding I think it well thought out and looks great. Still looking for you a post,headed west for couple days will keep my eyes peeled.

It'll be real cool. Air meter?

An old street light?

This is going to be sweet, can't wait to see pic's

Jealous!

Save a spot on the left of the left garage door for a Sinclair Pennsylvania vertical sign and to the right of the right door for an opaline sign. They are not to hard to find and depending on the condition you are after, can be affordable. I would go with repo globes as they will be outside.

First, congratulations on your project and it's great to see you plan it out beforehand.

In my world..I would scrap the farm pump and put a nice Eco air meter with the internal light on a matching Eco pole. For two reasons..one it would look great..second it seems I can always use a source of air right outside my shop.

And..roof looks great in my opinion..wouldn't add anything to it.

Keep us updated.

Keep the burn barrel.

I sure miss having one living in California. Sometimes I think about moving back to Wisconsin just so I can have a burn barrel again ! LOL

Interesting project.I really like the idea of a kero dispenser and the diesel farm pump;round out the product line so to speak.One thing you might consider is adding a simple "pole barn"shed to each end of the main building to protect them and to provide for kero and diesel signs of some sort.You also might think about price numbers.Maybe against building or on stands on the pump island.I would definitly get a Sinclair credit card sign.Best of luck.

thanks for all the comments! keep em' coming!

now, to answer a few questions & add a few details...

the existing slab to the left HAS to go. it was a small garage years ago & has dished out over the years. when it rains, it holds water about 3"deep. its also tall & with new grandbabies fixing to start running around, its a "busted head" waiting to happen! lol!
the burning barrel sadly has to go too.. our little community recently voted to be incorporated into metro nashville & they don't allow burning. that deal has been a real problem lately with the ex commisioners who lost their power creating problems for the ones who signed the petition to put it to a vote. i've been turned in to codes once already because i signed it (everyone on our street that signed had a violation) so figure i better watch what i do for a while until the vindictiveness dies down.
won't be putting anything on the roof as there are houses about 20 feet from the rear of the bldg. have good neighbors back there now,so don't want to stir them up. the old neighbors tried to stir up trouble because they didn't like the bldg so close to their houses (they bought with it already there, but for some reason thought they could make me tear it down... idiots!!)
i have an eco air meter (currently in the house) that i restored 17 yrs ago, but really hesitate to move it outside. the front of the bldg faces north, so doesn't get any sun & mechanical things tend to futz up & quit working pretty quickly. static items fare pretty well, but have to be kept clean or will mildew in a heartbeat. i might try to find another one & do a static "paint only" resto & put it out there. after the rebuild from the fire, i added an air line outside, so have the "usefulness" part covered
i am looking into the opaline & pennsylvania signs & thought i had found the third in the set (polarine?) a while back but missed it by a day. the credit card sign is also a possibility, but seems like the earlier ones that would go with my desired era are hard to find. guess i could always make up the stencils & make my own on the cheap! all the pump signs, globes etc will be repop.

any recommendations on what grade to do the second pump in?

thanks again!

also meant to add, i won't be putting any of the valuable stuff out yet as my guard dog is losing her baby teeth right now. that would be about as ineffective a tool of persuasion as posting a sign that says "tresspassers will be beaten with a wiffle bat"...

here she is sunday kicking back, having a beer & watching the game:


guarding the house:

that top picture is a classic..

a visible between the bay doors would look good..

I agree with a visable between the doors or a Coke machine?

Looks great.....Sully

I love what you're planning. Nice looking building to start with, too. Can't wait to see the progress.

Do the price sign for sure, even if you fabricate it yourself. My 34.9 sign gets a lot of comments from non-collectors who are not happy about the current price of gas. LOL

& maybe a sinclair neon clock..

I agree......a Dino windvane on your cupola maybe?

Looks like a good plan.

Here is a picture with one HC pump and one Ethyl pump...



This is an old station in Utah with HC and Power-X Pumps...

Too funny! I played around a bit with the photo, hope you don't mind...

Based on what you said about 30s - 40s:

Can't determine what you are trying to depic where it says "oil" but they did not start making oil can racks until the mid 1950s. Your period of time would more likely include a oil bottle rack, and it would probably be on the island. Growing up in the 40s, and going with my father to get gas and oil, I don't ever remember him buying oil from a can, and he always put the cheapest oil they sold in our old 1938 Plymouth.

Almost every island had air and water of some sort. If you choose an ECO as suggested above, you should use a cast iron ECO, probably from the 33 Series ECOs. The meter that we all remember did not come out until 1947, and would be used more with short pumps. As for water, if you don't run a water line, at least have a radiator water bucket and unless you are trying to depic opening day of the station (with everything brand new) the bucket should be dirty and dented.

The Kerosene dispenser would not have been outside, it probably would have been on the back wall of the garage, next to three or four more dispensers that dispensed different grades of oil, no 10 W 30 in those days. Also, why Kersoene? By 1940 the sale of Kerosene was way down, most people had electric lights by then.

If you are going with Sinclair, the signs over the garage doors should also be Sinclair provided signs. If you go all the way back to 1930 the signs over the doors would most likely read "LUBRITORIUM," and " AUTO LAUNDRY." There is an old station still here in South St. Louis City, that still has those two signs out front (I posted a pic here on OG a year or two ago of the station but can't find it).

In 1930 you would also find an outside auto rack, called a "AUTO ELEVATOR."

The light you are describing (probably a Revere)was introduced around 1950.

One last thing, I don't remember not ever seeing a soda or tire sign on the front or side of a station picture. The tire signs were usually tall slim signs. A Coke box (that used ice) would fit the time also.

Be consistant with what you do, otherwise it will only be a collection.

Jack Sim

I wasn't around in the 30s and 40s, but have a few photos of vintage stations from that era. Often I see cans stacked in the general vicinity of the "man door". (Always wondered, who had to re-stack the cans each morning and each night or did crime not exist?) But, some of these early photos do show oil cans in racks. (Jack, maybe the station your Dad went to didn't want that added expense?) Also,some of these same photos show the bottle rack, that Jack is alluding to in his post.

Here is a photo of an abandoned Country Store/Sinclair station in the 40s;



Ebay # 200683826732 shows a 1930s station and one can see the stacked cans I commented about and also the Oil dispensers (I didn't notice a bottle rack, but someone else with sharper eyes just might)

Here is a photo I found that reads it is from the 1930s;



Lastly a 1938 HI-SPEED station in Marysville OH;



Not sure if this post helps you with ideas for your station?

I look forward to seeing what the final look of the station becomes.

Here is a 30s station

You know first time I seen your shop,I thought it would be easy do to put front porch over people door over to edge of roll up,just have to figure how much fall we could put on it to make it look right on the front end. wouldn't cost much in material and we could do it in a day. If we could get same roof material from company that put up your building no one would ever know it was a after thought. Just something to think about.
O-jury is in here second pump sinclair pennant.

I think the lay out is great. I do agree with Nicole some what.
Instead of leaving the old concrete as is, I would extend the new concrete on to the left 'East' side of the building.
That would allow you to drive up to the pumps like Nicole said.
Then you could elevate the island on the new slab.
That would be a cool station scene. Keep us posted with pictures.

Looks like a good plan. I agree that a dino cut-out on the weathervane would look cool. Also, consider putting a light in the cupola. You could remove the louvers in the front of it, and replace with Sinclair painted on the pexiglass.
Great project, enjoy it!
John

thanks so much for all the recommendations, pictures & info on helping me plan this out. lots of good ideas being tossed around & i'm sure i'll use some of them once i get the main pieces in place.

i think i'll do the other pump in the 'ethyl' like the first pic posted on this page. i like loyds's idea of the 'pennant' pump, but as far as i know, nobody repops that globe. if anyone knows otherwise, speak up my pumps arent a matched pair with one having ad glasses & the other plain, so am thinking if i paint them like the ones in the pic with all the doors being white, i can do a door swap & put the two ad glass doors on the front & the plain ones on the rear for now. if another pair of ad glass doors pop up later, i can swap out the plain ones on the rear.

jack, thanks for the timeline info on some of the items. i'll keep my eye out for those signs over the doors as i think i can squeeze those in above the light fixtures.

bob, love the pic of the "hi speed' station! why don't they build stuff like that now? did anyone notice the mural painted on the wall thats as big as the station??

gilmore, LOVE the doctored up pic of the pup! the mrs. even got a laugh out of that too.

I spend as much time on this website as I do on Garage Journal. I get tons of ideas from both websites.

Here is a link to a garage someone built in a Texaco theme. It was inspired by an actual Mobil gas station. I believe this is the same idea as you have.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8044

Mike

How about a directional sign that says "washrooms" off the side of the building?

I really like your layout, and my bulldog is in love!

These are all good ideas, the first thing I thought of was the Sinclair credit card sign thats suppose to be underneath the larger HC red dot sign. Walt Feiger currently has a mint one for sale right now with the hanger. Also, in regards to the large red dot in the center of the garage, is that going to be a Cleveland Neon clock? That would definitely make it look good at night. The roof looks fine, if you found a cool weathervane someday (or laser cut a dinosaur one)it could be added later. Great job and good luck. Goober