Putting gas in old cars sucks
 

This is a super first world problems complaint, but putting gas in both my 67 and 64 sucks.

IDK if modern gas pumps are different, Im not as old as some of you guys. If you hold the pump down at full blast like normal, it backfills into the tube pretty quickly and shuts off the pump. It will also splash you if you are standing there. So rather than being able to put the lock on it and wait it out, I have to sit there and babysit the thing. Varying pressure when I hear it filling the tube. To get it full in either car I have to hold the pump and just about 20% throttle and let it creep up.

Anyone ever retrofit a modern style splash guard into a classic car fuel filler? I would certainly be willing to put in the work to swap one if there was one on the market.

In 20 years, I've never had any of the issues described with my GTO.

Consider yourself lucky. I once was putting gas in my '62 GP, the gas kicked back so bad it hit the pump, bounced off it and got me soaked on the return. Just call it one of those perks of owning an old car.

Man, both of mine are like that. I would say I get back into the car smelling like gas a good 50% of the time. They are both also short tubes at the rear of the car that dump into the back of the tank. Im not sure what year that design started to change with a longer fill neck. Or maybe some models are just better than others.

Either way, Im sure there is a reason the OEMs all do that trap door style splash guard now.

I had the same problem with my 71 GTO.

My '67 GTO, filler neck behind license plate, has always spewed some gas out of the neck onto the ground and license plate bracket if I fill it until the pump auto-shuts off.

It isn't anything new relative to pump design from what I can tell, it's been doing that for the almost 40 years I've had it.

Back when these cars were new the pump nozzle was even larger. Imagine that kick back. My 69 Vette fills easy with a 3 1/2 inch opening.

Some stations crank the pressure up on their pumps too. I was trying to fill my truck at a station last week that I could only pump by hand holding the handle 1/2 way open. It pumped about 30 gallons in a minute I would guess. I can’t imagine filling my ‘71 like that, I’d have a gallon on the ground when it shut off when full.

Its just funny that we wont tolerate cold starts, squealing belts, etc. There is an aftermarket solution for everything. Even some stuff that didnt really need fixed, but we fix it anyway. Yet here we have an issue that by some counts has been an issue since new, and nothing for it. My mechanical engineer buddy is always looking for car projects. Ill throw this at him.

My recollection is the flapper was introduced in conjunction with a smaller nozzle so that you could not mistakenly put leaded gas in a car with a cat converter that required the use of unleaded.

In any event I wonder if the smaller dia. nozzle resulting in an increase in fluid velocity is causing the problem? I have struggled with the ‘64 although I’ve only filled it a few times so far.

I find some pumps to be trickier to use in general. I like to fill my tank to the brim. Some nozzles are very hard to trigger to get a few more tenths. I especially hate the nozzles with the vapor hoods. Makes it very hard to top off a tank without spillage.

Ever try filling an International Scout?? :(

I have 3 old,62,63 and 69 and have no issues with the Calif nozzles?Have owned the 62 for 12 years,63 for 22 years and 69 about 12 or so off and on.Tom

I only filled up my 67 a couple of times before I left Cali so I cant remember if theirs were different.

To add a little humor to this. Anyone who owns an old hot rod is familiar with random dudes walking up to you at gas stations while you are filling up to chat with you about your car. Usually some dumb story about their uncles 327 fuelie jumping coke cans in the rain. I really try to be nice, its harmless, but when I am actually pumping gas Im often in the catchers position down low so I can hear the back flow coming and stop the pump. I always want to be like "Dude, can you give me a minute I really gotta concentrate on this, its hard."

It's more the fault of the pump nozzles than it is the filler necks. Was literally cursing and
swearing at a nozzle stateside once, honestly felt like I was starring on some prank TV show,
and this was a mid '90s truck. Back at home I could have filled it in well under half the time.

If you mean the slinky type sock, try compressing it by hand instead. It's kinda annoying
to have to do that, but I think it's well worth the extra effort. HTH.

I hate the placement of the gas filler on a 1965 GTO. It is so low to the ground compared to a 1964, you about have to get on your knees to fill the tank.

Being 74 years old doesn't help either !

It is not just older cars. I have a 2019 GMC Sierra. It will not accept full throttle on the gas nozzle. I now just set it to the slowest nozzle latch on the truck and both of my 62 Pontiacs. Give it time to breath and it will fill the tank and shut off. Sometimes you have to try different rotations of the nozzle for them to work.

Never had this problem.

Have more problems with modern stuff. The 1998 will take over 5 gallon (about 3 ounces at a time) after the nozzle shuts off. The 2014 is better, as it will only take another 2 plus gallons. If the station is on a hill where one can park at the pump with the filler tube on the high side, it works somewhat better.

Jon

Do your cars have the filler behind the license plate? Those are the only types of cars I've ever had any issues with when getting gas.

One of 2 stations here in town doesn't have a long enough hose to fill a car with the filler behind the plate. If I parked my 74 up against the pump curb, and perfectly 90* from the pump, it would just reach with the handle upside down.