Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Back in the Day.......

I finally got a few pics scanned and plan on getting more done.
This is the one that started me going... a porcelain 766.
I put my stereo in it...My fledgling sign collection on the wall in my first(solo) apt....1987


Love those GOC pumps!!!!!

Paid $25.00 ea for the GOC pumps and $10.00 for the Bowser box


Fry w/ blue tint cylinder ...$100.00...Bennett clock $25.00

Back then you just about couldn't GIVE a Texaco sign away. Nobody wanted those big 'ol things...lol

I knew it was a GOC but I couldn't resist doing in Shell after I put THAT globe on top!!!!!

ALL ORIGINAL parts decals & globe....they didn't Make repro parts back then!!!!

Why I don't collect GLASS...

Back then a poor guy like me could have a LOT of fun w/ a little cash.......Those were the days !!

Now days you get to have a LITTLE fun w/a lot of cash.

jkyocom
So how or why did you get your first pumps! I sure enjoy hearing the stories of the oldendays. sure would like to hear more stories of the finds and the things you could see in the old days. I recently bought a old Texaco sign that they said laid in lake Coeur D'Alene on the shore. That would have been a cool sight and find.

I started working on pump components, building nozzles in 1981. I was 19.
I had a brass Tokheim nozzle I found in the stock bin and cleaned it up....That's it on the Bennett.
About 1985 I found that Sinclair sign on a pump out in the yard.
Cleaned the paint off and fell in love. I got it and the Ethyl sign for free. I was hooked ...every chance I got to go out back and look, ..I did....found Gulf, Texaco, signs, ad glass etc. It was like a kid having a candy store in his back yard.

Then I got the idea of making a stereo cabinet out of the porcelain pump since I didn't have to strip and paint it.
I had NO IDEA anyone else was doing anything like that, and most folks thought I was crazy for having a gas pump in the house.
It took a couple of years of searching for a globe before I found Weber's where I got the globe and decal for the Bennett.

I rebuilt components for pumps, nozzles, meters, pumping units till 1994. I have been rebuilding crankback computers since 1987.
I will try to get some more of these pics scanned.
If you look behind the shell 62 without a globe there is a Wayne 276 w/ 5 gallon attachment and a #34 Tok.

I was in a building once that the roof was "shingled" with 6' Texaco signs. The guy had some of the only digital visibles I have ever seen.
They were made special by Tokheim for Stone Mt. Park near Atlanta... I still kick myself for NOT having one....There were only 6 made as far as I know.
The gas did not go into the cylinder, and they had some of the first digital computers made, all were "dispensers".pump was in the tank.

Hey Joe - I'll give you $500.00 for each of those frys... LOL I bought my first two Fry Mae's for 200.00 each - and I thought that was too much for them in 1993... Dang I usually drop 700 - 1400 each on them today!

Travis
Topeka, Kansas

I really like that Marathon. Nice clean pump.
Mike

Nice stuff Joe. you've done well

I have posted these before...
The Fry was found by my brother for $100.00 and I traded a perfect 42"? Sinclair H-C sign for it.
The American was found in a scrap metal pile at a bulk plant tank feild in ONEONTA, Al....$25.00... There was only the top, we bought a base from Benkin pump co. and had a buddy make the skins. Both went to Italy. That is a 12 1/2" American Diesel globe....$100.00...yep it's real. We found the handle for the American and two Fry handles under a bulk plant building and the guy GAVE them to us.


I like the 62's also....

Back then Time Passages & Weber's, Bob Bardwell were the only ones reproing stuff....Scobie had a fledgling catalog of a few pages....a guy had to be very resourceful in order to get a pump restored back to original condition. There was so little information like there is now w/ the net.

In the pic w/ the 62 & 39 behind the air compressor we had boxes and boxes of NOS and used pump parts that we sold and pulled from to restore ours.
$20.00 Bennett 76 bezels
$15.00 sheet metal
$20.00 sight glass manifolds
$10.00 trim pieces for most pumps...

I'll try to get more scanned this weekend....

Travis,
The last Fry I bought was from a plumbing customer, they had it as a yard light, it's been a few years but I got it for $500.00
What the strange part is, that I had it sold to Mark Sconyers, he came up here to get it, and
it turned out the folks I got it from, and Marks family knew each other. The folks I bought it from came from Marks home town, on the other side of GA.....
SMALL WORLD.

My European sports car....'69...this one replaced the totaled 1970 Ghia I had.


I have always loved the bodylines of the Ghia ...once you get rid of all the bumpers and junk.

This is the one pump I finally kept.
It came from my grandparents dairy farm in Elverson PA. I beleive it to be one of gasboy's first pumps. Still has the embossed gasboy nozzle. Got a NOS wood handle from a gasboy distributor....they had a nos pump similar & he sold the handle to me, since the pump he had was locked up.

It is the first gas pump I ever USED. When I was 6 or 7 maybe younger I remember cranking it to put fuel in the tractor.
Then my cousin showed me if you put the hose in the filler tube you could pump it all you wanted since it was just recirculating the gas....got in trouble a few times for doing that..... I was playing with gas pumps before I could read good !!!!

Great pics & stories there Joe. Keep them coming