Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Peeling back history

I've got this old Tokheim Interceptor that I'm going to do a piece on later, but in the meantime I want to see share what I found in with you all.

Here's the lower door. This solid gold color was used by Amoco in the 80s to identify premium. I remember the multi product dispensers at the local Amoco had this gold on the premium hose when I was a kid in the 90s. I recognize the gold and the font.

The gold was a wrap, a vynil decal over the whole door to give it the correct color and image. This was a common practice then, and now. I reimaged a few pumps myself when I was working on the modern stuff about 10 years ago with vynil wraps. I wanted to stop this off for a repaint. I started with the hose guards, and was surprised to find green underneath. I was a bit confused, what would be green?, I thought. Later a simple google search, I was reminded that Amoco was green in the 50s

With the help of a torch, I warmed up the wrap to loosen up the adhesive. To my surprise there was two full gold layers that came up together. I saw the word "The" under the first peel. The what? I thought.

Why "The Only One Certified Lead Free" of course

I could see there were even more decals under the the freshly exposed ones. I also noticed the blue was coming off with the decals, implying it bonded poorly with the paint under it, suggesting the pump had been painted multiple times. More heat, more peeling.

I looked closely at the decals. I noticed the Standard oval had a shadow. I'd never seen a local like this, and figured it was from the 70s. I tried peeling this decal off an found another under it.

After all this work, I'm finally down the the first layer. Even the "Contains No Lead" had on more decal under it. The fist on applied to the pump had blue letters, the next layer had black These last decals are super tough, and won't peel off. I'll have to grind them off.

Here's something I find interesting. I once heard a story about how pumps were painted in the field, by hand. The decals were applied first, with aasking material over them. Once painted, the masking was removed. The green under the decals, combined with the texturing on the blue paint supports this theory.

You're having too much fun. Thanks for the post.

Neat to see the layers of different eras, glad you had the idea to photograph this process as you went along!
Darin