Hello folken....

Name is Chris, and my wife and I inherited some gas pumps and other petroliana from her Dad. He was quite a guy and left us with quite a.... blessing.

He had three or four pumps and we are trying to find out more info about them.

This one is a Sinclair Dino visible pump with a bunch of extras. He said it was real and restored, but I need verification on that. I haven't been able to find any info hardly on the American Oil Pump & Tank Company as per the metal placard on the pump.

Anyone have any comments on this pump? Any info at all would be appreciated, thanks and God Bless!

Chris

First of all, the oil companies did not make pumps. They were made by companies such as American, so what you have is an American pump that was branded Sinclair. I identify 33 different American visible pump is my Gas Pump Bible identification book, but I can't find one that is exactly like yours. None of my pictures show a top (bonnet) that flares out at the bottom. Your pump appears to have a tapered cylinder surround, the cylinder is straight, but the rods supporting the top are slanted. Is there any other ID tags on the pump? If so, please post them here. I have never owned an American so I can't identify it, but I am sure someone here on OG will recognize it and give you an answer.

I sure looks like her dad did a very nice job in his restorations

Jack & Cindy Sim

Jack & Cindy,

Thanks for the reply. Interesting that it doesn't match anything you've seen. He didn't restore it, it was bought in that condition.

I only have two more pics than the ones I posted right now, but when I go there next I will take more. It's an hour away from me.

Here's a couple more. Anything you'd like to see that I am not getting in these images? Any way I can get more info on this? I also have two or three more, but regular ones. You can see part of a red one in the images.

Thanks again and God Bless!

c

Next time you go over there i'd just look them over really well for anymore marks, dataplates, etc. You never know how these pumps were restored and what was used. Jack it looks like the top is straight if you compare the rods with the cinderblock wall. Might be just an angle of the camera? Just my eyes anyway.


I'd love to see some good pics of the Red Bennett Texaco pump next to it as i'm in the process of restoring one of mine.

I think you are correct about the cylinder and the rods, just a little confusing.

Jack

I’ll try to take some more shots and post them of the other pump and some more of th Dino when I can. Thanks again for the info folks!

Here's a few shots of the Texaco pump as promised.

Chris

Nice thanks Chris!

So any of you pros out there care to speculate on what these two pumps are worth? Assuming they're real, and I have found nothing that tells me they aren't, what value would you put on the Sinclair and the Texaco? Kind of just looking for realistic ballpark.

Thanks and God Bless!

Chris

One of the toughest things on this site is putting a value to restored gas pumps. One, because there are different levels of "restoration" and, two, because you get such disparate valuations depending on who's talking. I buy and sell gas pumps as part of my collecting habit. I don't have a store front and don't feel that I sell at "retail" level (whatever that means in the antiques arena). As such, I price pumps at what I think they will realistically sell for on this site or craigslist/facebook. And the values I give contemplate the same. Others on here restore pumps for a living and/or have a retail space to sell restored pumps. They will give you prices, which I feel, are out of the realm of reality for most normal collectors just trying to sell out of their garage. The other thing you run in to is, any more, restored pumps are much more difficult to sell than good, clean unrestored pumps...everyone nowadays wants original pumps with "patina" (again, another word which has somewhat lost its meaning). Anyways, that's a long-winded explanation to get to the following...in my opinion, the visible is worth about $1600-2000 and the Bennett Texaco is worth in the $1200-1500 range. Those are prices ranges in which I would expect the pumps to sell relatively quickly with little hassle on one of the aforementioned forums.

Best of luck.

Looks like the top is a Bennett 810

The top does look off, there was 2 versions of american visible, 6 sided and 8 sided this seems to be 6 sided?

Here is the bonnet on my visible.

I was told that the Sinclair and all the goodies there could be worth up to $16k.

That was obviously not realistic.

Thanks for the feedback and God Bless!

Chris

It’s also very difficult to put a price on something without seeing it in person. Photographs on the computer always look better than seeing it in person.

In person, you can see all the defects and how good the paint actually is. I noticed the paint in one picture looks like it’s rusted underneath, which would hurt the value a lot. Maybe it’s just a reflection, or maybe the body work needs to be redone again, but these are the little things that you just don’t notice in pictures.

Looks like reflection of someone’s face

That pump looks pretty clean I doubt that's anything more than a reflection.