I'm restoring my first pump and didn't like the look of an empty sight glass. Filling it with some kind of colored fluid was just too much of a problem.

Amazon sells something they call glass paint, so I bought some and painted the inside of the sight glass.

The pictures below show the original sight glass and after being painted. Looks a lot more real to me!

I think you're onto something there! I like it!

Cool

That definitely looks better than empty. I know gasoline colors varied widely back then. Did you pick red to match your pump's blend?

Red was the only color I could remember seeing in the old sight glasses. The glass paint is available in many colors though. Green, blue (for the Sunoco fans), orange and others. I guess you could mix them and get whatever you want. ;o)

Are you just painting the spinner ? Glass doesn't look painted

No, the spinner is the original color - white. The inside of the sight glass was painted with a red transparent glass paint.

I've found 2 different Sharmeter pumps with colored stained glass in them, one green and the other red. This was located behind the ventilated window frame on an MA-37 cash computer. Makes me wonder if they would flash at night? Anyway, your idea is pretty cool. Good luck with the rest of the restoration.

Goober

Nice touch, I like it.

Tom.

Much better!

I don't know about realism, but I would certainly do this on any pump I was doing! It looks cool! And maybe also try to get a small light in there.
Thanks for sharing!!!

I agree, very cool. I'll try it on the next resto I do too.