Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion M S 80 question

Dad and I are starting to work on another M S 80. This one has the big ad glass top. This one has a screw head on the top center, ( close to being center but maybe not exact ) , and the under side is not a nut but a short round stock with a flange. We have never seen this before. Do any of you know what this is ??

I've wondered the same thing. This Conoco MS80 has a pointed rod screwed into the threaded part with packing so as not to leak. It looks to be original to the pump. My guess is there was some kind of spinner or advertisement attached to the rod.

RM

Yes advertising sign or spinner. I had a Gilbarco with that same rod

I follow old Conoco gas stations and I looked through a lot of old photos of the M&S 80. The best I can tell is that Conoco used these pump top signs in 1953 when they introduced Super gasoline "with TCP". I am attaching the best two photos I can find and you can see in one photo the rods used to support the sign. They actually look to sit on top of the pump and I don't honestly see a single shaft descending into a center hole. What is clear from looking at my many photos is that these pump toppers were used for the introduction of Super and they seem to be only placed on the Super pump....which would be the first use of the ad glass on the M&S 80 by Conoco in 1953.

Thanks for the info. Not sure why mine has a screw head on the outside . Maybe that's all they had to plug the hole with??

I had another MS 80 question. I restored one several years ago. Mine had a fiberglass top that had several coats of paint. The fiberglass top did not have the top screw. My question is...When were the fiberglass tops used in comparison to the metal tops? And also why were they used instead of the metal tops?

I seem to recall that Conoco used green fiberglass tops that were lighted inside. The light came through the tops giving a nice look. It's been a while since this question has come up. I might be off slightly but, that's my story....and I'm sticking to it! Paul www.severngaspumps.com

The one I restored was red fiberglass and had the Royal (Conoco high octane). I included a photo.

These fiberglass tops seem to first show up in photos in the mid-1950's just before Conoco's 1957 introduction of Royal gasoline. Conoco used red accents for premium gasoline and green for regular gasoline, so I think gasman's comment was referring to the regular gas pump. While I don't have a color photo to offer, I am pretty sure you will see a green and red top at the same time. Here is a photo of pumps in the 1953-1956 time frame (when Super was offered) and I am pretty sure the pump on the left has a fiberglass top.

Andy