Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Lead filler on Bennett Doors?

Bennett pump doors. Sight Glass/Trim holes at the top are filled in. I'm told that's factory and with lead?

Any of you restorers dealt with this? Can it be melted out with a propane/MAPPS torch? Sorry I didn't take a pic of the inside. There's a piece of metal 'welded' to the back but not like mig-welded.

Also, difference(s) between a 966 and 1066? Did some digging but couldn't determine that.

Thanks!

I can’t answer your first question, however as for the difference... A 966 has sight glass on the door, between the spears. A1066 has the sight glass on the side and has a “Bennett” emblem between the spears.

And I believe most 1066’s had the automatic resetting Veeder Roots (maybe someone else can confirm this).

-Steve

Thanks Steve!

When these pumps were made, lead was widely used in manufacturing and repair. Be careful with grinding or blasting leaded spots. Ingesting the dust is very harmful. You can carefully heat the lead to melt it out. Too much heat can warp the metal.

Thanks Jim, that's my plan. I also don't want to muck up the openings.

Used a MAPP gas torch and lead came right out. The center sight glass was actually tack-welded in place then filled with lead. Dremel tool took quick care of that afterwards.

I would like to respond to the post that they use of lead was done at the factory. A few years ago I wrote an article about the Tokheim 39 gas pump. One of the things I did was to determine how many Tokheim 39s they made. It took a while, but I came up with over 125,000 39s. I cannot see any of the four large pump companies, Bennett, Bowser, Tokheim and Wayne paying someone to lead fill a hole in a door, when all they had to do was stamp out a brand new one. Almost every state had at least one company rebuilding used pumps. The assumption that any pump you have spent its entire live in one station is wrong. The used pumps business was so large that I have been working on an article for "Check the Oil" magazine explaining the business. I don't know who did that to the doors you have, but I have owned over 200 gas pumps and I have never seen anything like that.

Jack Sim

Interesting Jack. The gentleman I got these projects from mentioned possibly the factory putting that in so I wasn't sure. The last company that used the two pumps I have that were sealed up with lead was ARCO. Pump doors both say 6-64 on the inside. I will say the lead work was nicely done because it wasn't only the holes that were filled but they went beyond that to blend those areas perfectly smooth. Was kind of cool burning it all out but at the same time I realized someone took some skill to put all that lead in.