Old Gas Guys,

We wanted to let everyone know that we are making plastic reproduction Erie Model 70 / 71 tops in limited quantities. We took an original glass top and very carefully (very!) made a mold from it. We used high precision mold materials that captured all the fine detail amazingly well. All the rippling and small spots in the original top are identically reproduced in the mold.

We then experimented with many different resins to cast the parts in until we found a formulation we liked best. It’s made of UV stable clear urethane that is meant to simulate glass. We added white colorant to create a milk glass look. We are also playing with different colorants so that we can make colored tops too; working on a red top right now actually. If you want something special let us know, we’ll try to help you out if we can.

The tops aren’t perfect, but they really came out well in our opinion. Our starting price is $325 each, little more for colored ones. We’d appreciate orders if you are interested, like to understand demand as the materials are expensive. Please call 920-224-2500 (Walter Bell) or private message me (Paul Bell) if you want to place an order.

- Paul

It looks great!

Looks great, height and all, pm sent.

Thanks for the initial interest, really appreciated! We are making more tops right now, going well. Just made my first red one, here's some pics. I imagine this red top would look real sharp on a Shell yellow Erie pump. - Paul

Had a request for posting a picture of the repro top in its metal framework. Here it is...

We purchased more resin, we will be making more tops this weekend hopefully. Thanks for everyone's interest, been really great! We are really getting the process down. We'll be putting a few tops on ebay as well, ones on there now (331309704963), red one will be on there soon too.

- Paul

Old Gas Guys,

I wanted to give an update on how the Erie tops are going. We’ve finished building our first batches now, went really well! Feel like we have the process down now. Scaling up from just a few prototypes was an interesting project for sure. I know the red top is on a gas pump and the buyer is happy, trying to get a picture of that pump so I can post it, plus I’m really curious to see it. All the orders we have did ship out this week; really appreciate all the first buyers, thank you!

Last time I picked up materials, I purchased dye to make the following additional colors: yellow, red, green, and blue. We haven’t formulated recipes to use these colors, we’ll just let those sit on the shelf until someone is interested and we are ready to make more.

Now that we’ve made quite a few and understand the process, we’ve decided to alter our pricing modestly, mainly based on the labor needed to make these is much longer than we thought. Prices now will be $350 each and shipping/packaging will be a flat rate of $20. We do have more available that can be purchased by private messaging me. We will keep a few on eBay too.

Thanks

Paul

Paul,

You are doing a great thing. These are much needed in the pump collecting community. Dick Bennett was also working on this, he even built a machine to rotate the mold. He has passed away without completing the mold of an original which his wife is keeping. Having a choice of colors sounds neat. If I had the pump for it I would be in on getting a top.

Good luck with the sales and thanks,
Rob

Mine will be delivered tomorrow. Going to try it next week.

Mine should be arriving soon also.

DB was sure a cool guy, sounds like he was pretty close to having a mold made! Hope everyone likes there tops, Matt you should have yours Monday or Tuesday at the latest!

First pics of a repro Erie top on an actual pump! Happens to be a red one! I know these light up very red, probably just the camera on that one photo making it look more white. I dont think Tom is here on old gas, but thanks for sharing the photos.

Thanks Don for sharing the photos of the repro Erie tops on your double, way cool!

More shine! Based on feedback from first buyers I'm going to buff all the repro Erie tops to a gloss finish. If you rather have semi-gloss, please let me know but default is gloss from now on.

Playing with colors, transparent green didnt work out but still very cool. Yellow, red, light green all good to go...

I would think many people would want to stick with original. The polished white looks great, just like the glass one. Just my opinion.