Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana A Couple Road Trip Pictures

I think this was a Montana, Wyoming trip that Les Towner from Hamilton Mt.and I took (one of many).
Just a picture of some old pictures.

Another trip with Les...

I think this trip was late 80's but only got a picture of stuff unloaded. Damn I never thought back then of taking
pictures of the places I found the stuff.

I will post some pump pictures a bit later in another thread. I wasn't a big pump guy back in the day as had no where to store them, but did buy a few
and some that I couldn't buy and some that I should have bought but wasn't pump savy enough back then.

I will save you all from more long winded stories. lol

some of those would fall under BOTY - "buys of the year"

appears too have been a good trip .. ...

Great stories, indeed! However, pictures do not do it justice ...

I happened to view your collection (youtube clip).

What an amazing collection you have put together. Great taste on your part!

Always enjoy seeing these, looks like a good time!

Holy smokes some goodies there!
Thanks for posting.

I've been lucky to hall back a few great loads , not as many as Kim but Here's one that I did take some pictures of .

Wow! Killer haul indeed.

Did you finish restoring the Wayne Roman?

We completely disassembled the 2 Wayne 492s replaced any broken or striped bolts with original Brass fasteners . Made everything work such as pump and valves cleaned them and left them in there original condition.

Back to road trips . I found a few pictures . Great memories and story's . Thanks Kim for starting this . We all need to think about happier times .

Thanks for posting this Kim and Peter. Excellent stuff, some creme de la creme. Love the Utah finds.

Thanks for sharing your stories you guys! I really enjoy stories about the good ole days.

Awesome stuff guys!!

Great finds, thanks for sharing and posting pictures.

What a lot of great stuff guys, love those Frontier globes. And Peter is right, we need to think about happier times right now.

What are those globe lenses in the Grass in the very first picture?

Here's a load of Ford stuff I got up in northern Idaho years ago .

My favorite picture and story. My son, the farmer, his dog, and the pump. We went on a trip to Idaho to pickup some stuff with my old Mazda B2000 pickup with no radio. Picked up stuff over there and on the way back had spoken to a man about a Wayne three light pump. He wanted way too much but I wanted to take a picture anyway. My truck was already almost on the rubber bumper on the axle and when I pulled up told my son we were going home with that pump. Mind you it was still hooked up and we had to spend 2 1/2 hrs watching the dog do tricks including walking up a ladder. Finally went into the house where the farmer asked his wife if he could sell the pump. IMMORTAL words from here, Honey it's your gas pump. When he said ok, the money I swear jumped out of my pocket. Unloaded the whole truck and had to lay the pump down and then stack the other pumps and stuff ontop. Now we were really rubber bumpers all the way back to Portland and the truck would not go over 50 with that little four cylinder motor. He told me that he gave the globe to one of his cousins, it was a Rainbow. My son will be 40 later this year.

Awesome story Craig, glad you got it.

Steve they were 15 inch husky lenses

Kim. Ha ha, oh is that all - Husky lenses. Lol. Great stuff. And nice Powerlube rocker to boot.

And Craig great story and pump.

OK, Here is some pic's of Jeff's gas bash the first one that my son and I went to in Seattle's General Petroleum Museum. The place was great and My son had a great time with his dog. Jeff's wife was a great cook.

Great stories and treasure's . I got this Frontier sign up in Border Wyoming years ago with my friends Jim Oswald and Kent Swensen . Had to hire a front end loader with forks to get it down . We got it all the way back safely and set it in my back yard with a crain . Lucky to get it both front and back signs are pristine.

Got this 492 out of Boulder Utah about 13 years ago . However it seems like it was yesterday .

Yes great stories and nice stuff. "Modern" day picking as opposed to this historical stuff from back in the day, goes some thing like this; pick up cell phone, dial number for buddy. Talking to buddy "hey do you have a such and such? Uh huh. Well how about a whatchamacall it?" Ok, so what do you have? How much? Ok, do you do pay pal? Uh huh, yes I know cash is king but I dont like carrying 20K in small bills across the country, it makes me feel like a drug dealer. Oh, alright then, so is that in 10s or 50s?"
Nothing romantic in that. No camaraderie, no thrill of the chase, no stories of hair raising drives. It's almost too sterile now. So keep the stories coming it's going to be long 2 weeks till the end of May!
Thanks guys.

Very well said . And so true

This neon came out of a small town by Spokane Wa...I used to go to the swap meet there every year and would go a couple days early trying to
fill the truck before the swap meet in case there was nothing to buy there.
Went into an old building that looked to be a dealership at one time. Asked if there might be any old signs for sale. Follow me, down the street
to an old shed, with no windows left, pigeon ***** everywhere, there on the dirt floor was this Ford neon. NOT for sale as he was going to put it
up on the building with his old cars. OK then...I would come back and visit every year before the swap meet. Five years later.
Hell, I'm never going to put it up, Talked with the wife and we will sell it to you. Rest is history. Loaded it in the truck, pigeon ***** and all.
Plugged it in, all original neon, works like a charm, mint condition as he had plexiglass all around it cause the darn kids might throw rocks at it
back in the day when it was up at his dealership.

Lets hear a couple Clifton, I know you will have stories to tell!!!

Easily my favorite thread! This stuff and stories are awesome.

Not nearly as good as most of these posts nice stuff and awesome finds. I have a few pics. Mostly I find things in antique stores and meet people that way and get leads and phone numbers. Have also met people on this site.
My first pump Hudson, Wy
McCord muffler Bonners fairy, ID
Lee tires with order card Tea, SD

Some more wish I had taken more pictures the day of since I travel so much. The Phillips was in storage unit in South Dakota. The neon 66 I bought on Facebook drove to Wisconsin to pick up. 42 hrs in 2.5 days. The American was my very first sign. Found it a couple of weeks after I moved to Utah.

Ok Kim, I am going to give this story a shot. It is hard for me to compare my stories to yours. You are a great original picker. Anyway, my wife I was driving down the interstate or some huge highway going around NYC pulling my junky trailer. I was constantly about to have a wreck or run off the road looking for leads. LOL. Anyway this dealership was visible from the elevated major highway and I saw these signs. It was an operating dealership in White Plains, NY. So I jump off at the next exit and wound around trying to navigate back where I was to find the dealership from "ground" level. I find the dealership and walk in asking to speak to the owner. Guy says "who are you". I said I want to talk to him about the signs which he did. Great old man. He asked which ones and I said all of them. He said that he would sell me the big letters because GMC no longer made coaches. I paid him that day and grabbed a couple of socket wrenches, grabbed a ladder from his service mgr, got on the roof and had no idea how "BIG" they were or how I would get them down. My wife and I lowered them down with a rope using the frame as leverage because of the weight (picture below). I asked about the others and He said the GM might be making him replace them in the next few years, but to stay in touch; and that he would call me if anything happened. I was thinking to myself "good luck". One thing about junking in New England is business owners are rich guys and a few thousand dollars doesn't do much sometimes. So I kept in touch with him for several years and one day the phone rang. Yep, he said "do you still want these old signs". I said "yes sir, when do you need me there". He said his sign guy would take them down and put them on my truck. 2 months later in the spring I was there with his sign guy who took all the signs down on the ground. I had to load them with my wife because the union workers would not help. Anyway, this was a great ending and I never got the window neons because I could not make the timing work and the owner was finished. The dealership is no longer there and the property was redeveloped. I had to strip the ugly maroon layers of paint off each letter; all the cans were rusted out, and I hand made the new metal cans for each letter in my garage, mounted the neon and restored them all. I think the "M" on GMC was 12 ft. wide. I have a couple of more stories worth sharing, but no pictures except maybe here in my house. There were not really any picture phones back then and I didn't take pictures when I found something. Enjoy!

Wow talk about ambitious. You've got some cujones, hopping on a high roof and lowering a sign including its 12 ft wide letter. And the best part your wife helped...willingly.! Amazing. Great signs.

I had to work on this guy for a couple of years to finally get all these Union signs . He is a great guy and we became friends .

I found this in Biggs Ca.about 30 years ago,it was on the side of a rice granary or elevator,actually 1/2 of a sign.It was fastened with spikes,tough time getting them out on an extension ladder.

36"

You guys might get sick of me but here's some more pictures . I got these 4 Texaco poles with two of them having the signs in them out on a farm in Wellington Utah . I also got some other things and I almost didn't take these ,at that time they really weren't worth much then and they are such a pain to move around ..

I have to say that I am enjoying this thread a great deal. Thanks to everyone for sharing their trips down memory lane with the rest of us.

Regarding the “Theatre” seats , Kim …

I met a San Franciscan collector via “Craigslist” that has a lot of San Francisco related stuff. He knew a collector that was able to pick stuff from the FOX THEATRE demolition in San Francisco back in early 60s.

What a shame City of San Francisco got rid of a piece of history.

At any rate, Jim was able to get a seat from the fella but the seat got damaged while stored in storage (mice go to it & damaged the fabric). Jim saved the ends.

On my visit to his house to get an oil painting, I saw the seat ends & asked about them Jim told me all the story about the theatre (he used to go there with his parents for shows)

Jim offered to sell them to me. I could not refuse. All original paint …

I do not have any hunting stories because I am more a shopper than hunter. I have got some stuff on leads but do not count them because I did not find them. Here is the haul from one of the leads.

A friend of mine got a find on his property. He was working in an area where there was an abandoned well and found a Flying A sign covering the opening.

Funny how the big old signs and poles were so worthless not that long ago Peter! I walked away from 4 near mint complete Texacos also about 25 yrs ago myself! all stacked up real nice and he told me to take the pile for $700. I considered it but he was about 200 miles from home and no way i was going to drag a trailer back and get them! Needless to say a few years later they were gone! Lol

This is a great thread. Really enjoying the pictures and stories. Keep em coming!

Ok here is another road trip to Price Utah area . I had no clue what the sign was under the paint and the owner didn't know either . I made a deal to buy it went and rented some scaffold and managed to get it down , he wanted me to take the pole to but to my regret now I said no thanks . I new it wasn't a Utoco or American because the size was different and there was a few places where you could see green porcelain . Anyways got it home and there you have it . That guy holding up the sign is a much younger version of Me .

These pumps came from south eastern Utah as well . Note the Fry on the left with the external pump . If I remember right I sold it to Dennis Meier a very long time ago . That's one I wish I had back but he's a great guy so oh well .

Amazing!!

That Falcon is killer!

BrianH

I didn't take a lot of photos for years but did keep this one photo. A guy called me and offered me these signs for 35k delivered. Probably 20 years go. I said I'd take them. A couple of hours later he asked me if I'd sell them. I said I'd take 45k for them. He said done deal and sent me 10k. Like to have them now!!

Pretty nice group of signs Butch!!! Les, I used to sit there sweating my butt off taking those big signs out of the poles and would leave the signs stacked on the bottom because I couldn't get the heavy poles moved off the top. LOL... I went back to see if the poles where still there and everyone had scrapped them all or they were gone. Crazy how the value on this junk has changed over the years

One year before my trip to Iowa Gas I decided to put an ad in a few Kansas town newspapers, never been to Kansas and figured maybe I could
find some goodies down there, seeing I was close in Iowa anyway. I got a few calls and continued to Kansa after Iowa Gas. I picked up some
ripple globes, Kanotex, etc. Then an interesting stop with a lady that had some Little Bear globes. She told me the story about how they started,
I think had a couple stations, and then showed me the prototypes I guess you might say, of what they wanted for globe lenses.
I never did buy them, didn't think at that time the value was there but I did get a couple sets of the Little Bear lenses we know today. I think
each brother and sister got a set of lenses and she called me a year or so later to see if I wanted another set but passed.

That is funny Kim. You are the 3rd person I know that has that same story.

A couple of trips to southern Idaho . Not big halls but some good things . Mint Veltex signs and a Wayne 60 with the Utoco Globe still on it . by the way those pole signs we have been talking about I also only took them because the guy had an excavator to load them on my trailer . I put them in a storage shed and it took me a couple of years to get rid of them and got very little money when I finally did sell them .

There likely was guys there after me Clifton as there
Was some Bear lenses left. I couldn’t afford them all at that time. Not sure if anyone ever did buy those ones in the picture

That is funny Kim. I would never tell? LOL

I'll tell another story. In about 2003 I was in New England junking, but first went to spring Carlisle. I was at the show talking to Chuck Pergl about his old picking days and he told me of a story where he and his brother found a guy who had a 1 pc. molded Texaco Firehat globe. Long story short is that he never bought it because the condition was a little weak and the price was high. I enjoyed the stories, didn't find much and left the show. About a week or two later I was driving up Hwy 23 of Hwy 287 in northern NJ. My wife and I were winding through the little towns and went a stretch with no town. I saw a little sign to turn off Hwy 23 and a town was 1 mile down. So I said what the heck, let's see if there is any town to speak of. I turn and go in to what was really not a town, but as I got there, there was a 50's Texaco station converted it to a auto body shop. Big banjo sign out front. I stop and the guy is under a car working. I almost left before he rolled out because there was nothing inside, gutted. He rolls out from under the car and I say I am collecting old gas signs. He says to me, I have the rarest gas globe known to exist. I said, trying to keep a straight face, "what would that be"? He said " A Texaco Firehat globe". I'll show it to you after I get off work at 5:00. It's at my house about 1 hr away. I go to the car and tell my wife, "this guy says he has an old texaco firehat globe". It's 4:00 now and we really can't make it anywhere else before the businesses close. Might as well go see the $50 repop globe with a firehat on it. We drive to his house, he says, "Let me grab it and I'll be right out" as we stand in the living room. He brings out a 1 pc molded milkglass Firehat globe. I about s**t in my pants. He says, the old man had 2, but would only let me have this one. I end up buying it right there. Coincidentally it was the exact same one Pergl was telling me about 2 weeks earlier because it matched the minor damage he had described. This world is smaller than you think and CRAZY things happen. I don't have a picture.

Here is what I got from a trip to Brigham City Utah long ago. For the new collectors out there this is what the stuff looks like when you find it in the wild , if that still happens anymore ? You have to crawl around look high and low and get filthy dirty . Then you bring it home and spend countless hours cleaning it but its the most fun you will ever have . Well maybe the second most fun you will ever have.

Junking in New England 15 years ago. I motorcycle/snowmobile shop had a 6 foot gas sign on the building. I go in and asked to talk to the owner who said he had a few things, but mostly just repro and common things. I go down and look and I see the Jenny globe in the middle of a Esso and Skychief globe. I think 5 globes total. I'm looking and looking, I and think to myself, "Dang, that Jenny globe is original 15" lenses on a repro body". I go upstairs and ask him if he would sell anything, and he said "what". I said tell me about that Jenny globe. He said, "my uncle worked at a Jenny station and when they closed it, he brought me those lenses and I put them in that repro body. He said how long you gonna be around?". I said today, my wife is at the hotel, I let her sleep late because it's her birthday. He said, "you go take her to lunch and come back later, if I'm not here I'll let the guys know". I said OK. I go to lunch, couldn't hardly eat, then went back. I pulled up and one of the employees ran out, I said the owner told me to come back about selling me one of his globes. He said "I know. He said to tell you to go down and get it". I about fell over because I thought he was trying to avoid telling me NO. He is the picture of his display and in my house now!

That Jenney....WOW, just.....WOW!!!! Great story too.

BrianH

What a great Globe . Congratulations

Great globe and story. Again your wife is central to your story-what a birthday present whether she sees it that way or not! LOL

I've had a lot of really fun and productive road trips with my good friend Wendel White back in the day . I'm sure some of you guys out there know him . Anyways this had to be one of the best and it was his find that he very graciously invited me along to it . This farm near Jerome Idaho had 8 sheds a barn a lean to and a big garage . All were packed floor to ceiling with stuff from the early 1900s thru the 1960s . This person saved everything from bent nails to women's bras , every time you went in it was treasure hunting. You could have filled a warehouse with mostly cool old stuff . We went up there off and on for more than a year and I got at least 80% of all my Utah oil cans from this one location . you basically had to tunnel in or take things out to get thru the stuff , talk about getting dirty by the end of the day . I ended up helping with three auctions that they had towards the end . Even the very last trip I found a 5 pound minute man grease can , to this day I don't feel like I got thru everything .These pictures represent just 2 of the trips up there .

Auction pictures

That garage floor is killer - is that tile or linoleum?

Now i know where all those quart cans came from that i see out there...Good pickin there!!!

Thanks , it was the find of a lifetime for a Utah collector . I'm just surprised that you weren't there first.

Thank you for the complement . Its called thin brick ,a clay product thinset over a reinforced concrete slab . Very similar to setting tile .

pretty nice pile of Vico stuff. Hard to find. Wendell had all the contacts. LOL

Clifton do you remember stopping by my house 15 years or so ago ? If your the same Clifton you've picked up a lot of great stuff over the years for sure. And if I remember right you ended up with one of those Frontier Globes I pictured earlier . I sold it to Todd Pace because he was going to keep it forever but he right away sold it to you for a big profit . Anyways if this is you I'm glad to reconnect . Peter

Peter, Yes I certainly remember. I never forget good things and good people. What a great place you have there. I thought maybe you forgot. I still have the Frontier globe Todd sold me(pictured) along with the other Frontier globes I found over the years. What you don't know is that you told me you found those globes in the Frontier bulk plant in Rawlins WY. What I never told you is that my dad bought a 15,000 acre ranch in Rawlins in the late 70's and I was there looking at the ranch in the 70's junking with him. We went downtown and we bought some signs out of the jewelry store there, but we never went to the bulk plants because he was not in to that and I didn't collect yet. So when you told me that story in the late 90's, it stung a little I've attached a bad picture one of the reverse on glass jewelry signs (over the door) for fun. It is hard to see but was always in my dad's house. He would always ask me "why are you collecting that gasoline stuff, they made thousands of those". What he and I didn't realize early on is that the smaller companies did not have thousands. LOL. Great to hear from you and glad your doing well. Those pictures you post and your collection is incredible!

Thanks Clifton for getting back . Those globes are the envy of anyone .And now we can keep in touch better . Have a good day .

Awesome stuff!

Around 1999, a buddy of mine and I went to a small junk yard near Dickinson, ND to buy two non-neon "OK Used Cars" keyhole signs. When we got there, we asked the owner if he had any others he would sell......he said he had a few sitting in the back yard at his home. It was just a couple blocks away, so we went there and this is what we saw. Luckily I had a trailer with me. Brought them all home.

Nice haul Eric !!! Damn that was a long way from home for a couple OK signs, especially back then. I was hauling from Wisconsin
and you from the Dakota's....hahaha

Great score Eric. It's a wonder I ever got anything with you and KIm on the hunt!!

These came from out east Wisconsin way.

Left this one in the field out there as was better things to haul.....lol
I think I saw it in an auction awhile back so someone finally found it.

You guys probably passed each other on I-94.

A montana trip 20 something years ago. Found this in a field

Had had a few of those Clifton but never lucky enough to find one in a field. Nice find!!!

Nice finds . That's why they call it the good old days.

This came off a farm by lava hot springs . I found it at the start of winter and it was frozen in the ground and couldn't get it unstuck . I had to wait 5 long months until the ground thawed out to get it dislodged . New neon of course . I wish I still had it but I got an offer that I couldn't refuse at the time . It went to a good guy that was really into John Deere stuff .

one more

Your turn , Jeff petropumps You have been scrounging up some great stuff for a long time . Lets see some pictures .

That's a rare sign Peter. I have never seen that combination of Cat and JD. Wow. I've let a few good things get away at a weak moment. I sometimes think that my grandad would roll over in his grave if I passed up that kind of money for a useless "sign". LOL

I'm sitting around at night with this virus stuff going on, so I am adding another story. Kim started a good thread.

I was in New England in 2012 junking. I stopped at a closed down Chrysler dealership in a little town. The 75 year old owner happened to be there cleaning some stuff up. I asked if he had any old signs and he said yes, how old. The ones I have a plastic but were never uncrated or hung. I asked to take a look. So he shows me the crated wrapped in cardboard signs in his back storage building. There was a partial dropped ceiling that looked as old as 50's or 60's to me. I asked what was up there and he said nothing because they added that ceiling to the building later on. I asked if he had a ladder and he said "NOTHING is up there". I asked a few more questions and asked again if I could look. He said almost angrily, ok, but don't fall through and you are wasting your time. I get up there and it was a drop down ceiling with not a lot of solid stucture. I look over and see what appears to be a counter top some 10 ft long leaning against something (kinda on it's side). You could tell it was just thrown up there as to get it out of the way. I make may way over, carefully. I rub the 3" of dust off and see orange and STOP. The wood frame gave it away, metal, orange??? The length puzzled me and it was heavy. I slide it over to the edge of the drop down and hand the long thing down without it seesawing up and hitting the top of the building while trying not to fall through and kill myself (standing on the flemsy wood runners every 2 feet). I get it down and without cleaning anything, ask him if he would sell all of them. His young helper kept asking " what are they". I was getting nervous. I made a deal and loaded everything in my trailer. Paid him and left..... It turned out to be 2 signs never hung that were nailed together with a wood slat backing. Here they are cleaned up that night.

Sir Coltex,

I checked “internet” why your photos are “watermarked and blurred."

Please see the "attached" file.

It would be appreciate if you could re-post better images of your finds.

Thanks in advance!

Sorry because I could not figure out the deal. However, I figured it was money so I have been trying to pay them the $5.99/mo for the last week thinking that was the problem and it says invalid when I punch the payment in. Driving me crazy. I will try again. Also, I think if you click on the picture, it shows you a better picture and the watermark goes away. But thank you for letting me know the problem!

Now that was a find !! Holy smokes..
Btw I know what it’s like standing on rafters
Wrestling stuff down.. lol

Click on photo takes you to the file. No watermark , but still fuzzy photo. I think it was just a bad photo , others in the file are ok.
Still a good looking sign , even if it's fuzzy.

The fuzzy part is that I took it with the light and background, I was sweating like a wet dog, so dirty I could barely hold my phone and trying to hurry before he changed his mind wondering why I was taking a picture. LOL

Come on Lets see some more pictures of stuff that you guys found when you were young . A long time ago. These were in the boxes and I got them with some other things in Pocatello Idaho .