Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion What Lubester or kerosene pump do I have?!

New guy here. I purchased a "Lubester" from an old shop that had an auction selling off items. No one bid on it so I said $2 and to make a longer story short, I won it for $2. It's been sitting outside my house and I'm wanting to either restore it, or make a display case out of it. I just need to know if it's anything "rare" since I haven't been able to find one like it. It's about 30"x30" wide. When I'm on a computer, I'll post pics. (Unless I can do them from my phone)It is green and has a OPACO lid and says OPACO 480 on the pump neck.?. Any info is appreciated!!!

Not particularly rare, but they do make nice accessory display items when you have a bunch of pumps on display. They make terrific display cabinets for smaller items, and they have been gaining in popularity over the last few years.

Is there a place I can find what the OPACO 480 was used for? Oil or kerosene? It's a bigger than normal tank than the ones I've seen.

6" hole in the top = Oil Dispenser
12" hole in the top = Kerosene Dispenser

Here are the pics... (I Hope)

In my opinion, these larger ones are less desirable then the more common smaller ones.

Thanks Dave for your opinion! This is my first one, I knkw its a heavy son of a gun. I think I'll feel ok chopping it up and making a display case.

Any other opinions from anyone?

Think I'll be ok to just start removing nuts and bolts to start disassembly? I've read about chemical strippers. Would inventory if I just use paint strippers and a high pressure steam cleaner to remove old paint?

It's a cool lubester, will be a fun project. It's fine to start breaking down now, but you'll need more aggressive methods to remove the paint and rust. Harbor frieght sells cheap sand blasters or you can use a DA sander. Most lubesters have a lot of dents too and there hard to straighten out. This is one of those labor of love things, not much profit in it, so have fun with it - do whatever you want. I did a Polly display case lubester that was kind of unique, might give you some ideas, just look at my old posts.

Thanks Paul!! I looked inside and there are some supports running up and down and sideways. I guess so it won't cave in or out. So that kind of put a damper on my display case idea. I can always cut them off, but we'll see. I also broke off the neck part. It was bent so I tried to unscrew it by hand and it was rusty and broke clean off. Now I need to figure out how to take off the inside piece and find a new one.