Old Castrol oil cans...what era?

[strang3majik]

I came across these old oil cans. I think I have 15qts...all never opened and in very good shape...

 

I just have no idea what era they're from. Figured some of you guys might be able to help...

 

[DRIVEN]

Probably '80s

[Npdavies.]

Yeah from what I've found, looks to be 80's.

Is that a Nissan symbol on the lid? Kind of looks like it from the picture.

[strang3majik]

Nah, its a Castrol symbol. But, some guy brought it in to dispose of all the oil...I figured I'd take them home since it was the old cans...haha. Cool garage art anyhow.

 

But...looks like they've had the same can design since the 60s...just minor changes. Only thing I saw from the 80s ones I found was that they said made for smaller cars, etc on them. But, idk.

 

I sure wouldn't use the stuff though...probably like crude oil now...haha.

 

 

 

I should ask American Pickers.......

[datzenmike]

I'd say 60/70s. It would have lots of ZDDP but otherwise old oil is just that. Oils today lubricate much better.

[DanielC]

Does the oil can have an API rating on it?

 

I would think an engine oil made when most engines did not have roller lifter camshafts would be better that a modern oil designed for an engine that does have roller lifters.

 

In other words, in old engines, use old oil. In modern engines, use modern oil.

[strang3majik]

Yes it does have an API rating...heres a better pic.

 

[Laecaon]

CC was introduced in 61, SD in 71, and SE in 79. So at least 79 or so.

[Laecaon]

http://www.oilspecifications.org/api_eolcs.php

[DanielC]

I am going to say that old oil is better for your 1972 engine than most modern oils.

 

But these cans of oil do also have nostalgia value. You might be able to sell than on some web based auction site to somebody looking to furnish a "man cave" garage.

[datsundash]

dude those are sweet, I wouldnt hesitate to use them, maybe your datsun might even appreciate you using its old favortie! Kind of like getting a drink of some long gone soda from when you were a kid.

[Figbuck]

dude those are sweet, I wouldnt hesitate to use them, maybe your datsun might even appreciate you using its old favortie! Kind of like getting a drink of some long gone soda from when you were a kid.

 

No shit, open them on the bottom so they look unused. When I saw the oic I said '70s, because I used Castrol 20/50 until the '90s. Used to buy identical cans by the case for six or seven bucks.

 

OK kids, gather round the old work bench and let me tell you about about the analog era...

 

I always kept a 'church key' in the little Craftsman tool box that lives with my truck. I epoxied a magnet to it so it would stick to the inside top of the box.

 

What is a church key? Back before pull tabs... what... you don't know what pull tabs are either? Well anyway, there were these combination bottle top opener and beer can openers, that were called church keys. You had to punch holes in a beer or soda cans to drink them in the pre-digital times.

 

The trick to opening an oil can with a church key, was to punch a big pie shaped hole on one side, then going to the opposite side, just push the tip of the opener into the top so it punctured a small hole...

 

small enough so you could grab the can with one hand, cover the little hole with your thumb, turn the can upside down without any oil pouring out... then slowly lift your thumb to allow air and control the flow of oil.

 

When I first drove my truck gas was $.48 a Gal. of hight test leaded gas. The 'gas crisis' around '73/4 made it so that there were long lines to get gas... and sometimes they would run out of gas after you waited for a half hour or something. That sucked, so they made it in California that you could only get gas on odd or even days. If the last digit of your license plate was even you could get gas on an even day and odd number, odd days. The last day of the month was both. Even then, it was rare that you could find a gas station open at night.

 

I had to buy a locking gas cap after my tank got drained a couple times parked on the street. One night I was driving back from Santa Cruz after a gig and made it all the way back to what they call the Candlestick Grade on 101 in South San Francisco. It's a long hill that I almost made to the top and would have been able to literally coast to my place. But gas ran to the back of the tank and it quit on me at two thirty in the morning.

 

I hopped the median across eight deserted lanes of traffic and went up into a neighborhood. The first car was a new Caddy. No locking gas cap... no gas. Same with all the new cars on this block. Finally a rusyt beat to shit Ford Falcon I almost passed up, had a full tank! I cut some poor fuckers garden hose and siphoned off 2 gallons of gas. I left five bucks in the ashtray.

 

Not too long after that the price of gas went to $.52, no more lines and you could gat all the gas you could buy.

 

It seem like the same thing has happened every year since. Gas goes way up, people bitch. Price goes down a little, never back to what it was, and people just sigh. Next year it goes way up again, people bitch. Price goes down a little, never back to what it was, and people just sigh.

 

 

On that.

[DanielC]

And this is what a case of oil looked like.

I seem to recall a price of around $11 or $12 for a case (24 quarts) back then.

 

I remember good leaded premium for 35 cents a gallon.

[71Stroker]

 

I remember those days figbuck, im a bit younger but my grandfather and my father owned a service station, yes a service station....on some lucky days my dad take me down to the service station ( called a "Flying A" service station ) I would run around "helping" service cars...putting air in tires etc...so, rather than a chruch key, we always had many of these oil can spouts around...i loved the sound it made when it broke through the metal top i dont know why...

 

Anyway, back in the olden days, people would go to service stations, and neatly dressed attendents would come out and pump your gas, wash your windows, check your oil,

check your tires, and more...all for the price of the gas alone...sounds crazy...i know..but its true...my dads service station was located at the base of the palos verdes

peninsula, if you know that area then you know all the wealthy folks lived up on the hill and had to drive right by dads station :) they had 4 bays for mechanical work and a lot that was always packed with cars waiting for service...it was such a cool place to go as a 5- 10 year old kid...they sold the station in the early 70's when the gas crunch hit, I think thats when things really started changing in the industry...self service stations and such...all you got was gas, no service...

 

here's a "manly" ad for flying A service stations....

 

look close at the pump in the background...100+ octane...sigh the good old days...

[Figbuck]

Yes I have memories as a kid on our first family road trip to Arizona to visit my grandmother, we stayed with friends in Santa Monica then Long Beach. This must have been '57 because I remember seeing those Caddy & Bel Aire fins and tripping out. We got out and played in the surf at Redondo. In those years there weren't so many people. Vast tracks of land were still open in every direction. LA was such a beautiful place!

 

My memory is that gas was like 26 or 27 cents a gallon in SF and when we got to LA it was 24 cents of something, but then out in Arizona it got as high as 29 cents and there were stations that only had regular no high test gas.

 

Cars burned oil. I don't remember what oil cost but I must have been like a quarter per quart or something. We never thought about what oil cost or gas for that matter. With V8s you had the attendant throw in a quart or two when he checked it. It wasn't a big deal.

 

 

 

 

 

i loved the sound it made when it broke through the metal top i dont know why...

 

 

 

No shit! It was like a sound effect from a cartoon. It's great that you have that memory of your Grandfather's gas station. We could have driven right by that place, and I think I must have as a adult probably in the '80s. I grew up in two neighborhoods in San Francisco, at my Grandpas bakery and my Dad's bakery. They put me ass to work when I was seven. There were Flying A stations close to each shop.

 

They both had those classic big Flying A signs on a pole, but the one by my Dad's shop had the most cool colored glass sign that was lit from the inside. The gas pumps had the same lighted colored glass and logo around the tops. Then they built Interstate 280 and whole swaths of land right through town were dozed and now that physical place is twenty feet in the air in the middle of the freeway to downtown.

 

Stroker what kind of soda pop machine did your Grandfather have at the station? Check this out... I was looking for a photo of the big sign and came across this... it's just a few miles from here... I go by there on Monday nights now, I got to check it out. Restored Flying A.

[71Stroker]

Yes I have memories as a kid on our first family road trip to Arizona to visit my grandmother, we stayed with friends in Santa Monica then Long Beach. This must have been '57 because I remember seeing those Caddy & Bel Aire fins and tripping out. We got out and played in the surf at Redondo. In those years there weren't so many people. Vast tracks of land were still open in every direction. LA was such a beautiful place!

 

My memory is that gas was like 26 or 27 cents a gallon in SF and when we got to LA it was 24 cents of something, but then out in Arizona it got as high as 29 cents and there were stations that only had regular no high test gas.

 

Cars burned oil. I don't remember what oil cost but I must have been like a quarter per quart or something. We never thought about what oil cost or gas for that matter. With V8s you had the attendant throw in a quart or two when he checked it. It wasn't a big deal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No shit! It was like a sound effect from a cartoon. It's great that you have that memory of your Grandfather's gas station. We could have driven right by that place, and I think I must have as a adult probably in the '80s. I grew up in two neighborhoods in San Francisco, at my Grandpas bakery and my Dad's bakery. They put me ass to work when I was seven. There were Flying A stations close to each shop.

 

They both had those classic big Flying A signs on a pole, but the one by my Dad's shop had the most cool colored glass sign that was lit from the inside. The gas pumps had the same lighted colored glass and logo around the tops. Then they built Interstate 280 and whole swaths of land right through town were dozed and now that physical place is twenty feet in the air in the middle of the freeway to downtown.

 

Stroker what kind of soda pop machine did your Grandfather have at the station? Check this out... I was looking for a photo of the big sign and came across this... it's just a few miles from here... I go by there on Monday nights now, I got to check it out. Restored Flying A.

 

I found a coke machine that looks very close to the one I remember at the station, it had a long skinny door all the way down, and used the old glass 8oz? coke bottles...I recall some other choices

in the machine too..."bubble up" maybe? like 7up sorta... i grabbed a pic - see below, I have some pics from the early sixties when im at the station "helping" im thinking they are right out in the garage...

ill go look in a bit when my 2 year old goes down for her nap.

I also have this cool pic of my grandfather getting an award from the flying A exec's ill try to find that tooo....its cool

 

[Figbuck]

Oh yeah that's the vintage! A dime... and you had to crank on that handle. Coke it's the real thing.

[71Stroker]

Oh yeah that's the vintage! A dime... and you had to crank on that handle. Coke it's the real thing.

 

yep you put your dime in, cranked that handle down, which released the "locks" on the necks of all the bottles, opened the door, pulled out your soda of choice, and that triggered the locks to

reactivate....grandpa had a key to the machine...and there were always a bunch of wooden cases of soda right next to the machine to reload it...no one ever touched the warm sodas...everyone wanted an Ice Cold Coke....I thought it was so cool when he would open the machine to fill er up...( or give me a freebie )

 

ohh I found that old pic of me working at the service station....on our families old 51 Chrysler Windsor...I wish we could see the station / gas pumps etc better...

 

[Figbuck]

That is some Americana right there. A red blooded American Boy, when cars were steel and gas had lead in it.

 

A different day... a different time.

 

The lever unlocked all the bottles... and you could take more than one if you wanted too... but I never did, and I don't ever remember anyone taking an extra. It wouldn't have been the right thing... we didn't think like that.

[71Stroker]

You know thats so true...you wouldnt think of "stealing" an extra soda....notice in the pics that there are stacks of oil at the pumps....no one would dream of taking one without paying for it....

something has been lost over the years....I remember in my neighborhood no one ever locked their front doors either...everyone knew everyone...its funny how all the kids came out and played together too...we always had like 15-20 kids outside after dinner...parents didnt have to worry....these days im scared to let my kids out of my sight for a second...sigh.

 

 

 

That is some Americana right there. A red blooded American Boy, when cars were steel and gas had lead in it.

 

A different day... a different time.

 

The lever unlocked all the bottles... and you could take more than one if you wanted too... but I never did, and I don't ever remember anyone taking an extra. It wouldn't have been the right thing... we didn't think like that.

[Figbuck]

Hey strang3majik, you ever use that oil?

 

 

 

I got turned on to a link that was a time trip. Cool huh?

 

 
Cleaning out boxes of parts that I've moved around for too many years... I found:

 

 

Gallon cans! Also found:

 

 

Church keys! Ahhh, Lucky. Grew up near the Lucky Brewery. Used to buy cases of bottles for nine bucks or something. Some of the very first twist off bottles. There was some kind of game on the underside of the twist-off caps. This was in like 1975, the day I got discharged from the army. I officially drove out the gate at Fort Ord at 12:10 PM and was ready to relax.

 

The first thing I did was to throw my watch out the window of the Datsun, right on Fremont Blvd. in Seaside, and swear that I would be late for everything for the rest of my life. I went to the little bungalow I was renting down in the ghetto... fuck it ain't one now, but it was then. Across from me was a crappy 8 unit apartment building that was a full blown whore house... but I digress. 

 

I grab an ice cold bottle of Lucky Lager from the fridge. First hit... AAAhhhh! Yeah, schlarp... ummm, that fucker is cuttin' the crust good. I go in sit down, pull out a nice Jamacan cigar I've been saving, cranked on Some Muddy Waters Electric Mud on the stereo. Vinyl right? Sit there leafing through the stack, reading liner notes looking at photos on the jackets... tugging on the beer.

 

There isn't the same feeling with iTunes or CDs. But then there wasn't the media like we have today. MTV and even cable TV was still years away. That first one went down too good... so did the second one. Look outside, nice day, Think about going to the beach and going to my regular Wednesday night jazz gig at the old De Anza Hotel... FUCK!  AND I'M OUT OF THE ARMY!!!

 

Put the next record and I pound another Lucky. If they were cold you could pound 'em too. I flip the record, go for another cold one. I hung a calendar on the fridge with a pencil on a string so I could mark off each day until I got out. I grabbed the pencil and put a big X on it, then cracked the cold bottle. Nah, didn't get a lucky winning cap!

 

I took a big old swig off it... until I realized that something semi-solid was going down too! I stop drinking and start choking... then the smell finally got to me. I look at the bottle and cottage-cheehezy, fuckin' green an blue, lab experiment culture is floating in it!!! I got all this crap all up in my mouth.

 

I rhalphed so mutherfucking hard that I hit the wall on the other side of the room! One of the bottles in the case had lost it's seal and I never saw it. Now when ever I see, hear or think about Lucky Lager I get a little queasy.  

[hang_510]

Nah, didn't get a lucky winning cap!

:rofl:

i had friends who bought it just for that.

 

 

 

No shit, open them on the bottom so they look unused. When I saw the oic I said '70s, because I used Castrol 20/50 until the '90s.

 

I always kept a 'church key' in the little Craftsman tool box that lives with my truck.

 

 

 

exact same set up i had in the back of the 67 mustang, 81-82ish. probably with the same church key thats in my toolbox today.

 

i hated when the cardboard collaped pushing the nozzle in... :hmm:

[strang3majik]

Nope...still have all of them sitting in my garage in an old empty chlorine container bucket with a lid...lol

[Mark Maye]

I found this unopened quart can of Castrol oil, this weekend and after searching ebay and google, I can not find another one like it. I do not think it is more than 20 - 25 years old and I am surprised that I can't find another one for comparison. There is no address with a zip code so it may be pre 1962 but it doesn't look that old to me.  It is 50 w which is also odd. Any comments?

[iceman510]

Interesting it says the liter volume on it.  Makes me think 70's at the oldest, but definitely different than the 80's cans discussed earlier in this thread.