So I am pretty excited to start this thread as I am hoping it helps me document the restoration of my Gilbarco 996C which has been a long time coming. The oump has sat jn my garage for just over a year and a half and I feel like it has sat there long enough! Thia is going to be my first restoration, so I expect I will learn a ton. The pump itself holds significant sentimental value to me. This pump was the original pump at my great aunts gas station from the Ottawa Valley. She ran the Shell station for 60 or so years from her early 20's to her early 80's! Even there, she only retired because of a broken hip around 2012/13 and sold the station property to the town who demolished it about 5 years ago. Originally this pump was on the island with a second pump and dispensed home fuel oil and was put out and to work right after rolling off the manufacturing line. By the late 60's it was moved off the island as she upgraded to modern pumps and was relegated to the side of the station. About this time it was painted green - people would pull up thinking it was gas so she felt it was easier to slap a quick green coat on it so that it stood out as being different. Growing up it was situated behind her garage at her house which neighboured my grandparents so we used to see it all the time as well as play with it. I was always under the impression it was pulled around 70-73 but as I have done some more investigating, the latest inspection sticker shows 1983 which would suggest the last possible use was in 1985 (which coincides with the year I was born which was neat). Unfortunately my aunt passed away a couple years ago and I was able to get the pump after her passing. I had asked once about 10 years ago but she had no interest in selling. Despite selling every other pump she had over the years (often for next to nothing), she never gave this one up to anyone or did not want to scrap it. So I feel pretty lucky!
The other amazing thing was that this sat in the elements from its manufacture in 1950 to 2018 when i got it into my garage
Originally I was going to send it away to be restored. There is a great company out of Lindsay, Ontario who does phenomenal work. Unfortunately when I contacted about a quote, they had a 15 month wait time and a cost of approx. $4500. So I decided that rather than wait and find the money, I am going to do this myself. I spent the last couple of years trying to think of how I am going to restore it and what to do with the guts. Neither was an easy decision. As much as I loved the petina, I have decided to do a full restoration to what it looked like back on the island - that beautiful shell yellow with red stripes. I have also decided to remove the guts as I would like this to go into my rec room. We are planning on moving into a new house next year so it would be the perfect opportunity to do that. Despite this, I may save the guts or may sell them - gavent figured that out yet.
Some other stuff: As ugly as the green paint was, it served as an outer layer to preserve the pump and thankfully there is nothing more than some surface rust on it today. I got very lucky with that since it was sinking into the ground when I pulled it from behind the garage.
I was able to grab the parts list which has been invaluable so far with research and as I start to disassemble.
The keys were lost to time, despite having one of her pump key rings, so I intend to take the lock and get a new key cut if I can.
As suggested by others in another post, I am also bagging and tagging all the parts, screws, etc. I plan on soaking screws and washers with rust into vinegar to clean the rust.
I am also going to save what I can from the original parts and try to limit replacements as much as possible.
So i have all four sides off finally. The two side panels were additionally bolted to the floor and had a job as one bolt snapped in half when trying to get it out. That'll be a problem for when I deal with the base. The lock side was the last to go and presented a problem as I needed to free it by freeing the lock mechanism and the overflow spout. Lastly I had to remove the handle or the hose to finish the job. I punctured the hose and had it spit fuel on me, so it was an easy call to slice it in half after I drained the fuel in the hose. I made a makeshift plug with a garbage bag and tape to keep it contained for the time being
I also pulled the faceplate off to expose the computer. I gave the numbers a wiped own, along with the faceplate and both looked fantastic. This was also where I caught the inspection sticker from 1983 as it was affixed to the one faceplate on the inside.
I tossed on a picture of the top to show what the door locking mechanism looks like for context.
Next steps will be removing the motor (i checked the belt and both the motor and the pistons move as they should still), somehow remove the electrical conduit and boxes so i can remove the wiring and rewire (hoping to clean up the porcelain sockets and reuse them) and remove the air exchanger which i suspect is the source of the remaining fuel in the pump. There also is a small leak of oil on the pistons so the seals are toast there for sure. I am nervous about removing the sight glass and having fuel pour out. Inspecting one of them after taking the bracket off showed me that the seals are basically glued to it after years in the elements so will have to scrape off and hope it slides out with penetrating oil.
