Oil Packaging Question

Sounds about right for their introduction, I would have guessed a little later before they replaced cans entirely. BTW 100% metal cans disappeared in the mid to late seventies and I kept my last one as an emergency spare for many years. Much harder to accidentally puncture than the foil covered cardboard cans that replaced them.

I worked for Naums Catalog Showroom, about the year 1980, and they had oil in cardboard cans with the metal tops. The plastic ones had already been marketed, so the transition started before then. Both were available.

The plastic ones pack in tighter, and are more space efficient.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

Was talking to a neighbor this morning, and somehow came on the subject of 1 quart plastic oil bottles... and we were trying to remember about what year the change to them was made.

Does anyone here remember about when that was?

I'm thinking mid 80's or so...

Thanks in advance!

Erik

PS, BTW, I still have one of those old cans.. full and un-opened!

This web page says..... "in the 1969s"

Was talking to a neighbor this morning, and somehow came on the subject of 1 quart plastic oil bottles... and we were trying to remember about what year the change to them was made.

Does anyone here remember about when that was?

I'm thinking mid 80's or so...

Thanks in advance!

Erik

PS, BTW, I still have one of those old cans.. full and un-opened!

...

Way late for intro--sometime towards late-60s, I'd say was when they initially came out. Were several incarnations of style before the more-or-less now nearly universal side-spout one of width/height, opening, etc., etc., ...

--

I remember a valvoline ad in a auto parts store with a woman with oily handprints on her shirt and the caption, "Real men don't use oil in bottles!" It was right over the shelf of Valvoline otor oil in bottles, so I bought a different brand. :)

I worked in a gas station as a kid. We filled oil into glass quart jars with a screw on funnel lid and cap to remove when filling the car up a quart. anybody else do this?

karl

Did it with the same top and a gallon glass jar for the Super Ag-Cat crop dusters. P-W 985's, 7 gal. reserve oil tank.

Pete Keillor

No, but I remember one off brand gas station that sold 'recycled' motor oil where you filled your containers from what looked like a 1000 gal fuel oil tank. I can't remember the name of the station or the oil, it's been over 40 years since I was there.

I vaguely remember seeing a _picture_ of one of those eons ago.

My first job after graduating from tech school was as a lube monkey for a local Chebby dealer. (MAN, what a letdown!) We had newfangled pumps and hoses which resembled gas pumps. They'd pump however many quarts you set the dial for. Just pull the trigger.

Other tasks were the warranty replacement campaigns on all Chevy car and truck motor mounts. That and other things made me a FORD man for the rest of my life. (Well, until I bought the Tundra.)

-- The ultimate result of shielding men from folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer

Yup, our oil came in 55 gal. drums.

How about an oil can drainer. A funnel that held 6 cans, and drained into one. In a day or two, a free quart of oil.

On 2/20/2012 11:46 AM, Karl Townsend wrote: ...

...

I presume you mean from bulk container used the quart jar/funnel as the oil filler can?

I worked several summers for the local co-op station (mostly running the wet fertilizer application rig but occasionally in the service bay/driveway). Always had a regular 2-quart filler can for the purpose w/ the builtin spout, no glass...what have for the trucks/small tractors now altho the capacity of the larger made it almost mandatory to go to bulk pump for them--carrying 23 qts two at a time gets rather tedious, it was some years before I finally broke down and bought the auto-dispenser rig. :)

--

A friend of mine worked at a garage a few years ago. He would rinse out antifreeze bottles and drain the 'empty' bottle of oil into them. When he had more than two full (10 gal) for their shop vehicles, he'd bring me one or two for my old car. :)

Round paper oil cans were still common in '79

• PrecisionmachinisT :

Worked at a Standard gas station back about then, we had quart & gallon round cardboard cans.

I finally disposed of a couple of the push in type can openers, for cardboard cans, recently.

Never know when you'll need it.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

Worked at a Standard gas station back about then, we had quart & gallon round cardboard cans.

I finally disposed of a couple of the push in type can openers, for cardboard cans, recently.

He could have cleaned it up, and used it to open & pour restaurant sized cans of fruit juice. ;-)

wikipedia say's '80s, about what I remember. Cardboard "cans" and bottles were side by side for quite a while before the cans went away, at least as onesies. My Dad had an "in" with the Conoco bulk distributor, so we had cans for quite awhile. Think he saved about a buck a case on that cheap crap. Once I had a car of my own, those bottles saved a whole lot of mess. I think the main impetus was that the cases for bottles were a lot smaller than the ones for the cans, could get more on a truck that way. Plus about that time, there were a lot of smaller FWD cars coming out with oil fill caps in pretty tight spaces that you couldn't reach without a funnel or a loooong spout. I can remember topping up the old 400 V8 from cans, punch a V into the can top with my hook knife on one side, a small slit for the vent on the other, stick a finger across the V and tip it towards the opening in the valve cover. I usually got the contents in with only a couple of drips, the fill hole was out front and was a couple of inches across. Couldn't do that these days with just about any car on the road.

Stan