Since we’re talking minivans, here’s another random shot from our walk the other night. This one is somewhat nostalgic, since back in the day when we drove a ’92 Grand Caravan, I always tanked up at this gas station because it used to be the cheapest.
Update: Since it’s in Oregon, no self-serve allowed, hence the attendant getting ready to actually gas up the Century.
I used to own a 93 Century just like that one (mine had a 3.3 V6 and 4 speed auto). My parents had an 87 Voyager in pretty much that same color (ice blue) when I was a kid. I kind of miss both cars.
That F body almost gets lost against the building of the same color. Urban Camo. I had a neighbor with a Century just like that. Beautiful shiny paint everywhere except the hood, that was duller than sandpaper. Have we ever solved the mystery of shitty durability of GM hood paint in those years? I remembered something about aluminum hoods to save weight. The expansion and contraction of aluminum coupled with GM’s lacquer paint may have been a bad combo. Every one of my GM B/C body cars from the 80s had hood paint markedly worse than anywhere else on the body (including the fender tops right next to it).
I thing the first mass market aluminum hood was on the first Aero Panthers. I don’t think GM ever used an aluminum hood on the B/C. Aluminum is hard to get paint to stick to, but that would result in it coming off not losing it’s luster. The hood does get the worst of weathering thanks to being horizontal for maximum sun exposure and heat from the top and engine heat from the bottom.
I am not sure about B body GM cars but the 78-88 Olds Cutlass Supreme coupes had them. The 1978-1980 models seem to have more of a chance at getting the aluminum hood. It was not a pick able option(like power windows) it seems that they were just randomly placed on random Cutty’s of that vintage. They were on fully loaded Cutlass’s and base models also. There was no rhyme or reason for it. The only way to tell them was to run a magnet over the hood and see if it stuck. If it did not then it was an aluminum hood.
The other way to tell was look at the hood hinges, the one for the aluminum hoods were both a different design and took less effort to close. On the G body forum I belong to(I have an 1985 Cutlass Supreme sedan(only 30,000 made that year) ) it is always recommended that if you switch out the steel hood for an aluminum hood, that you change the hinges or else the the hinges for the steel hood will cause the aluminum hood to bend due to the forse it took to push them down
http://gbodyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=35186#.UajmVaxyLn4
http://www.oldspower.com/vb/showthread.php?t=50136
Aluminum hoods appeared on certain Cadillacs, namely those with fuel injection and those destined for California emissions. Diesel cars got aluminum hoods as well.
My 83 Eldorado has an aluminum hood as it has a large “A” stamped next to the hood latch. When we removed the hood to replace the power antenna it was a relatively easy two man job.
My 1979 Cutlass, as I remember, had a steel hood.
Yes the 77-79 vintage B/C-Bodies used aluminum hoods. Mostly Oldsmobile in 77/79. Even the 79-85 Toronado used a aluminum hood. The last alloy hood I saw was on a 80 Buick LeSabre which I snagged for my 82 LeSabre based hearse. It weighed a measley 28 pounds compared to around 80 pounds for the steel unit.You won’t find any alloy on the Chevrolets for some reason. I don’t know what the criteria was on what cars got the alloy and what didn’t as it seems that 99% of those cars got a steel bonnet. GM did use a lot of aluminum on the bumper reinforcements on everything after 1977 and as somebody posted the 78-80 A/G-Body used a lot of it too.Today you’ll find GM using aluminum for the hoods on its hybrid trucks and tailgates of just about every SUV they sell.The only aluminum sheet metal I can recall seeing an a Ford was the air cleaner lids on the carburetor models.
The first Aero Crown Vics used aluminum hoods across, no some of them do and some of them don’t. I’ve been told that the Town Cars used them too but have never checked. That is one of the reasons that the early CV tipped the scales at under 4K and the change to steel is part of the reason the later models gained weight.
I think my ’67 MGB had an aluminum bonnet (sorry, I can’t use Yank jargon for this car). There are probably a lot of older models that did as well; seems an easy way to reduce weight on unstressed surfaces, so long as the add’l cost is tolerable.
My ’64 B had an “aluminium” bonnet 🙂 and when I graunched it, I got a replacement off a ’65 or 66 that was also Alum. I think (not sure, but it sticks in my memory) that the mid-70s Bs used steel. A previous owner covered the original bonnet with white contact plastic hand-colored to look like an Australian flag. Go figure. The replacement one had good paint.
Mid-80s paint tended to suck across several makes. My 84 Ranger ended up with a rattle-can paint job on the top when the sun killed the paint. House paint got really terrible for several years in that time. At least for house paint, the formulation was to reduce the amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs on the label). Early efforts were less than successful. I suspect that auto paint had the same problems.
Yes low VOC was the reason that cars that were painted in the US had problems in the mid to late 80’s.
I had both of these vehicles. The SWB Caravan was losing it’s paint and the Mitsubishi 3.0 stopped running at 120K miles. I gave up and junked it. Common problems from what I’ve read here at CC.
The Buick Century had the V6 and suddenly lost it’s radiator, quickly followed by a head gasket on the interstate. I regret not keeping it. It had the old fashioned dash and the split bench seat – both of which I found quite appealing. It felt like driving a car from the 1970s except for the FWD.
Wow, a Union 76 station, haven’t seen one of those down here in years.
I worked at a place like this for a few months because I needed a job.
The booth smelled like cigarettes and it was loaded with more tobacco products than a Virginia tobacco shed. You could get high on nicotine just sitting in that booth. The combination of gasoline and cigarettes sold 24 hours a day brought every kind of road human to my booth.
Wal-Mart is like a Henri Bendel’s off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills compared to the business and clientele at your local gas booth.
What keeps folks from catching deadly bacteria and viruses at these places is the toxic chemicals smeared on every surface. Gasoline kills a lot of living things in either vapor or liquid state.
But the most dangerous stunt I dealt with daily was handling paper money. Paper money at a gas booth is only slightly cleaner than the Oval Office politics and deals bringing the gas into your car’s tank.
Then there are the customers. With gas prices so high, there are many times when you know the ungroomed schmuck carefully squeezing out five bucks of gas into his Grand Am stole it from his baby mother’s purse when she turned to snub out a menthol smoke in her toddler’s high chair tray. You could just see the tention in his right forearm tattooed with the Tasmanian Devil as he surgically watches the luminous numbers flicker on the gas pump.
And that’s when it’s only rush hour after five in the evening – when folks are coming home from jobs.
After the sun sets you lock yourself into the gas booth, pull on a pair of disposable gloves and count the cigarette packs so you know you didn’t get ripped off by the gas jockey on the last shift. Then you wipe down the vinyl swivel stool with your sweatshirt sleeve, adjust yourself in your jeans, and make sure the intercom system works so you can warn the guys who look like potential drive-offs that they need to pay before pumping.
Good times!
“The combination of gasoline and cigarettes sold 24 hours a day brought every kind of road human to my booth.”
I think you just won the internets for today with this comment.
You nailed it about this particular gas station: it has low prices on cigs, and probably does as much a business (or profit) in them than the gasoline. Folks walk here to buy them, given the part of town it’s in; real characters…Stephanie always went elsewhere to tank up.
A = What should we sell with our highly flamable gasolines?
Q = I know! – Cigarettes, matches and lighters!
Wow, Dude. Between this comment and your one about nasty train crossings, I need a shower, a drink and some antibiotics. 🙂
Cigarettes and the other “inside items” is where all the profit is. Sell $5 of gas and make maybe $0.25 sell a $5 pack of cigs and make a $1 or more. Sell $5 worth of snack items and make $2.50.
Exactly right Eric.
Dude! LOL!
I am not surprised about the A-Body Century and both it and the 82-96 Cutlass Ciera were durable long lasting and not really that uncommon to see lots on the road today(especially the 89-93 models with the 3300 V6)
I did not know that people still smoked in Oregon even in North Carolina (the land of tobacco farms) we have pretty strict smoking laws.
Also, I thought only NJ had laws about self-service at the gas pumps. I hope you don’t have to tip those guys.
No tipping. And prices aren’t really any higher; well below CA.
My wife says she’d never live in a self-serve state again. She HATES pumping her gas. And since she won’t even consider NJ, we’re here to stay. Works for me.
Being lower than CA doesn’t say much since on average they have the highest prices in the continental US thanks to taxes and CARB, but in my experience OR is a little cheaper WA, since we also have one of the highest gas taxes in the country.
Our shop is 1.2 miles from SC border. We fill up at Gulf today $3.15/gal regular. Mystic about 2 miles from the house sells ethanol free pure gas premium for $3.79/gal. I can’t complain.
Last gas I bought was $3.94 IIRC for regular E10 at Costco the lowest price in the area. The closest stations are ~$4.25 for regular E10. Thanks to the tree huggers in OR, that get much of their gas from refineries in WA, only the 4 or 5 Cenex stations in the state sell pure gas, it comes from their Montana refinery.
In southern Oregon, we’re not that far from the Cali border, but we seem to run 25 cents a gallon less than the small towns in California. Over on the coast, it’s “bring a banker”, but it’s been that way for decades, due to transport issues.
Non-oxy gasoline is limited to marinas and fuel depots, though a wee bit has been known to flow from the gas can to a vehicle tank…
FWIW, the Union 76 stations turned into Texacos locally. My last credit card from them was cobranded Conoco and Phillips 66, and the Union 76 truckstop near Salt Lake City went Conoco.
Back when some smaller stations would pump gas to draw business – this was the late 1970s – I lost about four gas caps to idiots like those.
Occasionally, when traveling, I come across a station that has an attendant. I don’t like it; I’m afraid he’ll scratch my paint; pocket my cap, pour the gas on my tire and set it on fire. I’ve been known to stand there and watch the reprobate, make sure he doesn’t steal any paint shavings or “honk” a tire on me…cut it, to sell me one, an old 1950s traveler trick.
Urghh, the Oregon no-self-serve law…
In high school some friends and I road-tripped up there for rafting one summer. We had it all planned out–spend the whole weekend there, leave 4am Monday, and be back in time for our shifts at work that afternoon. Come Monday, of course, the needle hits ‘E’ an hour into the drive. We pull into a station… which doesn’t open ’til 8, and has no self-serve. Some time after that, we dragged ourselves into work back in CA, about two hours late, which is not a good look.
I’d say we could have researched it beforehand, but it’s so nonsensical, it would be like thinking to Google ‘are you required to wear a helmet to order pizza in this state’.
Gasoline paradise here in NJ. No self-serve and a very low gas tax that allows for prices that are among the lowest in the US.
One morning when Christine Todd Witman was running for governor of New Jersey, she was on the Howard Stern Show. Howard asked her if she’d change the law whereby you can’t pump your own gas.
She replied, “Howard, don’t you feel safer with a professional pumping your gas?”
Grew up there, pumped gas there — professionally, when I was a kid and I’ve been back sporadically over the years. The attendants were far from what I’d call “professional.”
But it’s a great make work idea to help the unemployment figures. Can you imagine if every gas station had to have “professionals” to pump all the gas? I’m surprised more states haven’t jumped on that band wagon!
In OR many of the pump jockeys are also less than professional, one of the reasons I usually fill up at Costco when traveling to and through OR.
One of my grandmothers lived in Philly and she would always cross the river into NJ for gas, even though it cost her more. She would go to MD regularly for much lower priced liquor though. Gotta have your priorities.
Some of you might enjoy a visit to http://www.gassigns.org — I have no idea why, but I find it fascinating.
All the dead, departed brands.
Don’t know why…but I hated to see Esso go in 1972. It was like a friend was gone…there were no Essos where I lived; but my mother’s people were in upstate New York. Seeing Esso stations meant we were on a vacation; in a more beautiful part of the country. Chores were gone; new experiences abounded.
And then that strange EXXON appeared. When I later started roaming Canada, and found Esso as a brand alive and well there…oddly cheering.
Sinclair wins that site – ’60s land yachts filling up under a Brontosaurus logo, too perfect.
According to a Western Distributing driver I spoke with at our Costco, gasoline formulations change according to the jurisdictions they are sold in, such in counties & municipalities. I was surprised, for I thought it varied only across states at most. Anyone have more info?
And another thing: My Civic’s manual says to avoid fuels containing manganese additives like MMT. I searched in vain for more detail on this, & could find nothing more than advice like “buy Top Tier gas.” I should think that something as everyday as gasoline would have less mystery to it than this.
At least I know a little about the oil industry: Esso & Enco were replaced by Exxon in 1973; the former in turn were descended from Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, which was broken up into many smaller companies in 1911.
He’s right – gasoline has to be formulated with oxygenators in areas designated by the EPA as needing it; higher-altitudes, such as Denver and other elevated cities, use a lower-octane but – what’s the term? – more-readily vaporizing formula.
Some states mandate ethanol. Some places, especially places that have a lot of RV or boat usage, will offer a grade of gas without it. And on and on…
Thanks. Here’s another tidbit: I have heard that Pemex gas is often inferior, which is why Mexican nationals like to fill up here when they can. This according to a Hispanic lady my wife chats with at the YMCA. BTW there is a lot of small-scale “smuggling;” Mexicans buy brand-name stuff cheaply here in small quantities, then go south & sell it for a profit there. And sometimes the opposite. No problem with Customs so long as it’s not in bulk.
I often see Mexican-market cars unavailable here, usually little Fords & VWs, & a tiny Pontiac (probably rebadged Asian) whose name eludes me at the moment. There are many upper-class Mexican visitors in Tucson.
Not by municipality per se. There are non compliance areas where the EPA mandates Oxygenated E5.75 fuel either part of the year of year round. The RVP or Reed Vapor Pressure does vary significantly based on season, climate and altitude. CA and some other states have “reformulated gas”. All in all there are dozens of different formulations.
Here is a map of summer gas, though it is a little out of date since all of CA now has CARFG2 which is E10. There is a another map for winter gas and some places with extreme temps in both directions may have a transitional blend too.
Those gas station attendants are very serious about not pumping your own gas lol 🙂
One time years ago while waiting in line for gas in OR at the other side of the pump was a guy in a perfect black mid 60’s Corvette, the attendant didn’t want to get near it. He took the nozzle out of the pump, activated it and let the owner pump while he stood by.
Government forbidding you from filling up your tank. Wow, if that doesn’t scream “NANNY STATE” I don’t know what does. Do they let you perform oil changes at home? That’s a little more in-depth than “tanking up”…yet that’s allowed? Makes sense (in the eyes of government). Sorry, but you’re getting hosed (no pun intended)!!!
Two things I despise about Oregon: too-low speed limits and no self-serve gas.
Pumping gas is not even remotely difficult to do. With pay-at-the-pump at most stations nowadays I can fill the Tercel and wash my windows and be on my way in ten minutes. But here I’ll sometimes wait that long before an attendant even gets to me. Also old Toyotas have a nasty habit of kicking off the pump well before the tank is full, and well after the attendant has moved on to other cars. I then have to break a *#$#ing law to restart it myself rather than wait several more minutes for the attendant to come back.
/grinds my gears
I for one enjoy not having to pump my own gas, and apparently the majority of voters in Oregon do too.
You do know there are non-government mandated full-service stations in America, right? ha ha. Some people vote with their wallets. Don’t need a government regulation for that!
In most places they are very very rare if there are even any at all.
+1 EvB. I remember there being at least one lane for full service up until the ’90s, for those who were happy to pay the premium. From the mid-2000s on, though, fuhgeddaboudit. My mom made a stink about that briefly, then got used to sending Dad or, while we were home, one of the kids to fill up the Cutlass Supreme.
Ridiculous. I can barely stand driving anymore due to the increased congestion/traffic. This would really push me over the edge! Disappointed to hear of such a cheesy law in Oregon!
Service stations stopped providing full service because it is cheaper for them to do so. As far as full service stations go, I haven’t seen one outside of Oregon in years, so I don’t know if they even exist anymore unfortunately.