I was encouraged by another member to tell a little bit about myself in this thread. So here it is...

Just turned 35, only collect items of the Gilmore Oil Co. Why?… my last name is Gilmore. Not sure when I officially started collecting, just know I was young. That is, if you call having reproduction/novelty items collecting even. As long as I can remember, my dad always had (repro) Gilmore signs, photos, toys and globes and I always had street rod shirts with Gilmore logos on them. Friends and kids at school would always ask me what “Roar With Gilmore” meant. :-)

My father got me interested in racing, old cars, gas pumps and Gilmore. Since he was a kid, he had always been messing with and fixing/ restoring old cars. He was involved in racing (mechanic on pit crews) at local Chicagoland tracks in the ‘60s and eventually owned a performance speed shop. Believe it or not, my mothers aunt raced cars in the area in the '50s - '60s and was quite successful. She was known as Flyin' Flo Nelson and looked every bit the typical grandma with her white hair and way she dressed (the old school grandma look). Our garage was always a shop atmosphere with cars and car parts all over. My friends father was part owner of a family owned body shop and had a shop in his house garage. That was my “home away from home.” Many an old car, street rod and gas pump was restored there. Growing up, our vacations every summer were planned around driving the current old car somewhere and always had a stop at some car show/ swap meet. Dad knew about a prewar west coast gas company named Gilmore and knew of them racing and winning the Indy 500 but didn’t know much else until he'd seen an article on Gilmore Oil history that appeared in a late ‘70s - early ‘80s mag called OLD CAR ILLUSTRATED. I believe that’s about the time when he seen Gilmore stuff in gas pump restoration catalogs like Weber’s and likely when his “addiction” started.

For me, it wasn’t until 12 years ago, when I bought an ERTL Gilmore tanker truck on ebay, that I noticed, bid on and won a Lion Head can. That was my first “real” item. Noticed some old race car photos at that time, with Gilmore livery on them, bid on those and won them too. Since then I have acquired a few more photos, about 400! I collect everything Gilmore but old photographs and paper ephemera are my main direction in collecting. For the last few years I have been researching newspapers and trying to document the history of the Gilmore Co…. little by little. I may have a problem! crazy

Sell me your Gilmore Oil Co. stuff...