Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Gas Pumps

What type of pumps do you have? Visibles, electric ??

I've gone full circle on this topic. When I first started I wanted to gut every pump I bought and do them up with repop plates and globes and throw two different colors of paint on them. A few years later, it could kick myself for taking a couple pumps and removing the aged patina to do it up to make it look like new. I've said it before, my friends do not understand how I can not do up my more recent finds like I did up my earlier pumps, but I couldn't be happier leaving them like I find them, guts and all. Brady

Well im not an expert on these but I believe they are all electric. None have any large areas where you can see the gas being pumped. the 1930 has the clock face for the gallons. Several others range from 1950 to 1960.

I like the comment "if needed they could all pump gas again." About once a month I get a email asking me if I know where they can get gaskets for their old pumps.

Inside the pump and the meter is about one gallon of the worse smelling old gas. Sell this pump to someone, he puts it in his family room, somebody decided to turn the pulley and out comes the gas. That is why I never sold a pump with the guts still in them.

Jack Sim

IMHO guts in electric pumps will always be worthless, never had a soul in over 20 years of collecting ever want to look inside of one. Like everyone said, do what you want. I personally will never pay more for a pump with guts. I'll still gut every one I get. It's the first thing I do when they are unloaded at shop. The beauty to me will always be the external cabinet. To each his own I guess, just have fun!

One reason I gut my pumps is I have limited space so I use the pumps with swing open or lift off doors as storage.

Guts are a great hidden theft deterrent as well.All mine have shown me that.

Makes them very heavy with the guts indeed.

I let the pump tell me what should be done. There is point that the condition dictates what should be done. The ones that are badly in disrepair deserve to have a second life so I restore them. I have pumps restored but most are as they were found. Those are just cleaned up and allowed to be as is. When I do restore them I usually gut them because they end up in our great room which makes it some what easier to handle.

But it is what you want, pretty simple.

I appreciate all the comments and a bit surprised it is more of a hot topic than i expected.

Its been asked so many times. My opinion is I leave the guts in all pumps period.

All I can say is I have never been inspired to buy a pump because of what was inside. But as of lately I haven't gutted any, can't say why I just haven't....

And once their gone,they're gone.

If only new gas pumps looked as good, had as much detail as the old pumps. Wonder if anyone would ever collect a more recent pump. I know I probably would not.

If you're selling them, leave the guts. They're only good for scrap and the work and mess involved to remove them is not worth your time and effort.