Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Mobilgas Globe dating / gen. info

Hello, I'm newer to the site.. I had been reading different threads on / off for a few years now & recently decided to join on in I've been doing a little collecting of gas / oil signs, bottles etc for a while now, but recently pulled the trigger and purchased a gas pump to restore. I've been wanting to do one up for years now. I purchased a 1938 Martin & Schwartz model 70 series 2... it was used on a private facility untill 1974, then brought inside for storage. It has the original glass and glass bezel with both emblems on one side & the other was missing the upper & lower Art Deco emblems & glass, but the metal glass bezel was still in there.. overall it's in great shape with minimal body work... I feel pretty lucky to have found it.. I'll eventually look for the other badges, but right now I have an option of two different globes I was looking to purchase right away while there's good availability and I found 2.... both are Mobilgas Special... one is just the lenses and the other is in a metal body already... I know they're both authentic, but there are slight differences in the lettering... the one in the body already, the special is written smaller & there is a larger gap between the g in gas and the A in the word special underneath it... on the other faces of just the lenses it's obvious the word special is larger and there is a smaller gap between the the G and the A... is it due to small changes that where made in production over time? I didn't know if you can tell which of the two would be older as well if that would represent certain years that run was made?

Welcome

welcome aboard .. ...

Nice to be in good company

Solid looking pump to start your collection with, one of my favorites. I found there is lots of good insight and knowledge available from the guys on OG. Welcome

Maybe this can help my son recently purchased a globe that’s original as well . Can compare pics ! 👍

More than likely just a manufacturer design difference. You will also notice that Mobil globes were offered with the two different colors of lettering of the word Mobilgas, blue and black for the east and west coast markets respectively. The pump plates would have matched the color, for instance a black border west coast drop leg Mobilgas Special pump plate with the black lettered globes. Either color lettered globes are period correct for the pump, but early on they would have used decals instead of the pump plates that came out in the 1940's.
Darin

Thanks for all the kind words & the information as well.... I always try to know as much as I can before and research what I can before I go out a spend what's goin to be a fair amount of money. This isn't the most economical hobby to have, but it's quite rewarding for me to have little piece of the past in my garage.... that & I love all the work / process of giving the pump a second life again restoring it 85 years later after it was produced. Every time I look at it, I think t myself, my grandfather was 19 when he was working at a gas station when my pump was made. We've come a long way from paying 24 cents a gallon
Here's my other project too.... I'm going to repaint my lubester at the same time.. (except for the original stickers "AF" Heavy sae 40, & the Peggy sticker that was put on top of it a few years later).... I scraped off part of the pegasus sticker when I first noticed I can read part of the word Heavy... it was like an archeology project slowly removing and cleaning it up....you can see in the pictures how lucky I was to pull off one sticker to still have the face of the older one still under it.. it's 100% complete and working as is when I picked it up... minus the AF paddle, but It'll hopefully come along one day.
I figured the two pcs. together, they'll be "at home" with one another.