This morning a good friend of mine and I took down his newly acquired Texaco Banjo Pole. This was our first attempt at taking down any kind of pole. All it took was a little nerves, 2 good ropes and a ladder. I think we did a great job of dismanteling, and lowering this piece of Americana without any damage or incident. I wish we could do this every Sat.! This stuff is still out there and surprisingly this one was on a major highway. My friend Kevin who is a Hot-Rodder is fast becoming a Petroholic as well. If anyone has a nice Texaco sign for sale especially in NC or surrounding states let us know. I hope you enjoy the pics.
Mike
As Found
Removing Light Arms
oving Light Arms
Removing Top Light Bar
[This message has been edited by Mike Smith (edited 01-19-2008).]
Removing Top Lights
Sawing Anchor Studs
Safely Down and headed for a new home!
Kevin
Me
Couple of pictures missing [of bringing down the pole].
Kinda hard to take a pic. of it coming down when your hands are full. We made good use of a near by light pole, drove a J bolt in it, wrapped rope around pole and through the J bolt. We then tied the rope to the top of our pole. We used another rope to pull it over while the other man lowered it safely. Piece of cake!!
Mike
i did that once.had a guy from across the street come over and help us. he told us he was watching and thought it might be funny,then he thought it might get serious and just walked on over.no problems. nice pole!
Yeah, That would have been funny if the power co.crew was having breakfast across the street.
[This message has been edited by blackteetexacogold (edited 01-20-2008).]
Mike
Glad you got the pole down without any problems.
May I ask how the other guys can just drop a pole like that down on tires, mattress, etc... without damaging the six foot ring on top? Seems you'd have to be a pretty good lumberjack to do it...
I apologize if I offened you at all, I was just kidding in my posts. Hope you know that.
Doug
[This message has been edited by blackteetexacogold (edited 01-20-2008).]
Edited Topic to remove comments.
Please keep this topic pleasant as Mike is showing us what a great weekend he had.
Nice Job Mike and Kevin!
edit
[This message has been edited by huskybob (edited 01-20-2008).]
We got some advice from some people in our area who have taken down many poles. It seems that the oldest trick in the book was a good old king mattress and or some rows of old tires and pull it over with a rope. The base won't kick back because of what's left of the studs. We could have pulled this one straight over directly on the mattress but found a better way. We got lucky and there was a that near by light pole which had no juice to it anymore. We used another rope tied to the band and wrapped around the light pole and through a J bolt. This acted like a brake when our pole came down, nice and easy.
Mike
Thanks Mike
If I'm ever lucky enough to find one, I'll just borrow the shops boom truck, that's how we put up all our outside lighting poles... We've gone as high as 45 foot on some ball diamonds up here.
Doug
[This message has been edited by blackteetexacogold (edited 01-20-2008).]
Thanks for sharing Mike. Not everybody has a nice tool belt like that. I am guessing you are no stranger to heights. Very nice pole. Would love to find one for my shop.
Mike
Excellent pictures & editorial.
Thank You for sharing that & congrats to you & your friend on saving something special.
Neat way to knock those poles over,I hadn't thought of doing it that way! Would you try it like that with a sign still in?
You guys better get after those poles if you want one,did you see what the restored Standard went for at BJ? 24k + comm. WOW!
I would probably do it with old tires and the sign still in it. Yes, Kevin and I both used to be Linemen. Kevin also used to do tree work. We both work in Network Operations now for a Communications company.
Mike
I saw a shot on TV of the floor area with the gas & oil, noticed the Standard sign too !!! $24,000+ ! Good God, that's has to take top honors for "Moron of the Year" award. And it's only January!
WOW KEVIN THAT LOOKS GREAT! THAT SIGN IS CLEAN! GLAD IT FOUND A HOME!
You Must have nice neighbors!!! Great looking sign!
Congrats on the pole .......
Parkwood love the pole sign........
THATS ONE CLEAN BANJO SET UP! AND WELCOME TO OLD GAS!
Whens that pump by the garage getting cleaned up and done
That looks great. A pump will accent it perfectly
Thanks guys for the nice complements. I was lucky to get that sign it was in great shape and it really only has one spot above the letter A that I touched up. It was about the size of a 50 cent peace and I touched it up with por 15 and used some oil base white paint from Lowes and it matched great. As for my neighbors they are really cool. I put it right behind my house just to be nice to them anyway. It's all woods behind my house. Hey Polesignkid what are you talking about that Gilbarco pump is done. Well I guess I could put an ad glass in it and a globe on top of it. Thats my really patina pump (rusty but straight). The gulf pump will get the full treatment one day.
Sorry I forgot rust is now spelled patina.I can't wait to get my poles up and **** with the neighbors......lol
Gave a guy with a skid steer and a truss setting boom $100 and thirty minutes later it was on my trailer.
Putting it up took a bit longer.
Link to our TEXACO sign restoration and installation. http://oldgaspumpguys.com/Restorations.aspxOld picture but the sign still looks the same. 
I've had my pole signs up for years & I never get tired of looking at them.They are alot of work but very cool.
Very nice. Excellent job.
WOW OH WOW!!! Welcome aboard and that is one awesome sign.
Mike
hey mike im sure you know about clines over in mt. pleasant but he had 3 6' texaco signs saturday. one was $400 and another was $450, didnt ask about the third one
Oh yes, I know Cline's very well. I try to stay away from there, spend too much money!! Good stuff once in a while but you gotta be there when it comes in.
Mike
