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A Refueling Tip That Can Help Save Your Paint
Years ago, when I first learned to drive, in the 1960s, it was much more difficult to successfully fill your car's gas tank without having gas spit back on you (my first job, right out of high school, was in a high-volume military gas-station, and my hands usually smelled like it LOL)
Each car seemed to have a different design to its refueling-system.....some of them with filler-doors and gas-caps integrated into the lower-rear bumpers, some of them behind the rear license-plate fold-down hinges, some mounted high up behind the rear fin/taillights, and some of them more or less like today.....mounted into the rear side-fenders, usually on the left (driver's) side. Some cars had door-flaps over the screw-off gas caps....some, like the early-60s Plymouth Valiant I first learned to drive on, simply had a twist-off gas cap, painted body-color, that, when screwed, formed part of the fender assembly itself.....a cheap money-saving design that, along with a nearly horizontal filler-pipe behind it, often led to gas-spills and stained paint on the fender (and no SCRATCH-OUT in those days LOL...you had to use wax-cleaner to scrub the stain off). Depending on the design, gas could also spit out on rear chrome, bumpers, license-plates, hinges, tailight-wiring / assembles...on almost anything just below or built into the filler-assembly itself. On the pre-1968 air-cooled VW Beetles, you actually raised the front "hood" (the engine itself was in the rear), and twisted off a cap on the fuel tank mounted just forward of the windshield, on the firewall. Back then, of course, you also did not have the protective clearcoat-paint layers you do today, so raw gas on the paint would stain the color itself. The automatic cut-off features built into gas pumps, in those days, which were supposed to shut off the flow when the level gets a few inches from the top of the pipe, didn't always work properly, either.....after seeing several of them continue to pump raw gas after they should have cut off (and creating a serious fire hazard), I learned not to trust them, and feather the last gallon or so in slowly, on and off, by hand. Added to that, of course, was the fact that, before the 1970s, gas had a lot of tetraethyl lead in it (which was a cheap way of raising octane to prevent knocks and pings)....so, if (or, when, LOL) gas got on your hands during the refueling, the lead in the gas could seep into your body through the skin-pores. And we know, today, that lead is poisonous.....little children have been known to get sick, and even die, from putting old, dried paint-flakes off of walls into their mouths.
Today, of course, much of that is history.....gasoline does not contain lead any more, paint jobs are much-better protected with clearcoat, automatic cut-off systems on the pumps are much more reliable (I haven't seen one fail in years), gas filler systems have become more or less standardized in the fenders, the classic spit-back system on the 60s Valiant/Dart and some other cars is long gone, and, indeed, some cars, thanks to a new system pioneered by Ford and Lincoln several years ago, don't even have twist-off (or locking) caps any more.....a series of small interlocking seals closes off the pipe after refueling with no cap. My new upcoming Buick Lacrosse will also have that system....my present Verano doesn't. But (oops)....spill-accidents can still happen under some circumstances (I still see people occasionally do it), and paint can still be stained if left that way long enough.
So, I thought I'd share a little trick that I learned to help prevent gas-spills, whether on a brand new-car, or one that is 50 years old.....the principle still works the same. First, I apologize for not posting this earlier, as I've been doing it for years, but the thought of posting it didn't really hit me until now. Anyhow, most gas pumps have a filler-pipe that tends to arc-down at the tip, right where it goes into your car. So, even after the automatic shut-off clicks, any extra gas still left in the down-curve or hose that is not still pumping might dribble out, by gravity, onto the area around the cap, or dribble down the fender. To prevent this, First, DON'T try and add any more gas after the cut-off so that the pipe is completely full.......the gas can run into the evaporative-canister (an EPA-required device that controls gas-vapor emissions) and damage it. Second, as you remove the pipe and its curved section, do it slowly and, as you pull it up, slowly rotate the curved-end of the pipe, without bumping any of the sheet-metal with it, so that the end of the pipe points up instead of down...gravity will prevent any trapped gas inside from running out the raised-end. Then, once the raised pipe-end clears the fender or the filler-door, hang it back up normally on the pump, close the filler-door, and pay for the fuel. It may (?) feel a little awkward the first time or two you try it....but, after that, it's a snap. And, trust me, it works......I haven't spilled a drop of gas in probably twenty years.
Years ago, when I first learned to drive, in the 1960s, it was much more difficult to successfully fill your car's gas tank without having gas spit back on you (my first job, right out of high school, was in a high-volume military gas-station, and my hands usually smelled like it LOL)
Today, of course, much of that is history.....gasoline does not contain lead any more, paint jobs are much-better protected with clearcoat, automatic cut-off systems on the pumps are much more reliable (I haven't seen one fail in years), gas filler systems have become more or less standardized in the fenders, the classic spit-back system on the 60s Valiant/Dart and some other cars is long gone, and, indeed, some cars, thanks to a new system pioneered by Ford and Lincoln several years ago, don't even have twist-off (or locking) caps any more.....a series of small interlocking seals closes off the pipe after refueling with no cap. My new upcoming Buick Lacrosse will also have that system....my present Verano doesn't. But (oops)....spill-accidents can still happen under some circumstances (I still see people occasionally do it), and paint can still be stained if left that way long enough.
So, I thought I'd share a little trick that I learned to help prevent gas-spills, whether on a brand new-car, or one that is 50 years old.....the principle still works the same. First, I apologize for not posting this earlier, as I've been doing it for years, but the thought of posting it didn't really hit me until now. Anyhow, most gas pumps have a filler-pipe that tends to arc-down at the tip, right where it goes into your car. So, even after the automatic shut-off clicks, any extra gas still left in the down-curve or hose that is not still pumping might dribble out, by gravity, onto the area around the cap, or dribble down the fender. To prevent this, First, DON'T try and add any more gas after the cut-off so that the pipe is completely full.......the gas can run into the evaporative-canister (an EPA-required device that controls gas-vapor emissions) and damage it. Second, as you remove the pipe and its curved section, do it slowly and, as you pull it up, slowly rotate the curved-end of the pipe, without bumping any of the sheet-metal with it, so that the end of the pipe points up instead of down...gravity will prevent any trapped gas inside from running out the raised-end. Then, once the raised pipe-end clears the fender or the filler-door, hang it back up normally on the pump, close the filler-door, and pay for the fuel. It may (?) feel a little awkward the first time or two you try it....but, after that, it's a snap. And, trust me, it works......I haven't spilled a drop of gas in probably twenty years.