Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Derby oil dispenser

I bought my first oil dispenser the other day. There are no identifying numbers or logos anywhere and there are no remnants of old decals. I guess that means I can refinish it however I want. I'm mulling over a couple different ideas. One idea is a Derby theme. There was a Derby station in my home town while growing up and thought it might be cool. The issue I'm having is that I can't find much info about Derby. The few pictures I can find show very small retail buildings with no service bays attached. Any oil those places sold (I assume) would be in pre-packaged quarts and not in bulk. A Google search did show one abandoned Derby station in Missouri that has two service bays but I have no idea when that location was in buisiness. What ever theme I decide on, I'd like it to be something that was at least possible to exist.

Does anyone have any info on Derby stations and if some of them had service bays that would have pumped oil in bulk? I did find and read the info from this site when Derby was featured one month. Thanks

derby lubester decal, 7" dia. .. ...

Derby was a very well known brand and covered a large service area in the midwest. They had all kinds of stations from cut rate gas only stations to large service centers. They would have definitely used bulk lubesters like yours in a lot of stations so restoring it to the Derby theme would be fine as far as usage by the company goes. Check with Derbygasman here on Oldgas, he is a big Derby collector and lives in Wichita. He can tell you where to look for all the information on Derby you might need. He checks here once in a while but you might send him a private message. His contact info should be n his profile. Good luck with your project.

Thanks to both of you for the information. I just built a new garage to house a couple of old Dodges I have. I could refinish the Lubester in a Mopar theme but that seems too predictable. I think refinishing it in an oil company theme would be a better idea. It should go well with the street signs, traffic lights and parking meter I already have for the space.

Thanks for posting this.

I've decided to refinish the oil dispenser in a Derby theme. It will be a winter project. I was looking around online to see what decals were available. The only decals I saw said Derby Gasoline. I didn't like the idea of having a gasoline decal on an oil dispenser so I kept looking. After a lot of searching I found one picture of a Derby Motor Oil sign. I sent the picture to a friend of mine who was able to convert the image into a line drawing and recreate the artwork. He was able to do the same thing to the picture "advertologist" posted. I sent the files to a sign shop and they printed me some decals for my lubester.

Looking good....thanks for keeping us updated on your DERBY project.

By the way, since you're quite near Des Moines, Iowa, do you attend the IOWA GAS meet? John

Might not be your cup of tea, but I made an oil can display out of a lubester I had. Has under cabinet lighting inside also. And u could put whatever u want in it, it has adjustable shelves.