History LOST MY DADGUM GAS CAP

I alluded in a earlier thread that I had to attend a old friends visitation/funeral this afternoon and I had decided this morning that I was going to drive my old beater to the funeral home.

I knew I needed to stop and get some gas before swinging by Brenda's flower shop and picking her up,so I pull in the station,vividly remember putting the gas cap on top of the car and proceeded to pump gas and as always happens the guy pulls up and starts asking questions and as I'm talking I finish pumping and hang up the pump handle and the guy ask me do I have a business card,so I reach in my wallet and hand him the card,

I get in the sedan,fire it up and pull out in traffic then take a hard right and I hear a bump and it takes me about 15 seconds to realize the noise was the cap bouncing off the fender.

I turned around and went back but the 4 lanes of traffic prevented me from finding it so I now gave a duct tape cap ( pays to have your roll of duct tape cup holder with you at all times).

BTW,there was only one hot rod at the funeral home but I bet there were in excess of a hundred Harleys.

Am I the only guy that forgets the gas cap? HRP

 

Yes.

 

Maybe it is time to swap all your 1932's for Model A's, easier to spot the missing gas cap. Bob

 

I have a locking cap on mine. I have to put it back to take the keys out other wise I can not go. Well it saves fuel being stolen and me losing caps.

 

A buddy of mine with a 1931 Dodge sedan set his cap on the gas tank splash apron when we filled it up. Got in and promptly ran over it when he backed up.

 

I had filled up my OT pickup in N.Y.
On our move back to Canada and crossing over the $2 bridge into Canada at the Hill Island border crossing.
Got to the border and Canada Customs. Just after clearing Customs an officer walks in and asked who's pickup it was out there. You are missing your gas cap.
Crap!
Told the Customs officer I'm going back for the cap.
$2 back across and have to explain my return to U.S. Customs.
There was the cap sitting right were I left it atop the gas pump.
$2 again for the bridge and another stop at Canada Customs to again explain!
Urgh!
That truck was forever known as the $6 gas cap!

 

One of the joys of a locking gas cap is you need the keys to remove and replace the cap so impossible to leave without it. The guy who owned my pickup must have figured that out for me. The avatar has a flip top cap.

The ot cars have it tethered

Someone is looking out for me.

I guess I'm safe.

 

This is the main reason I use a locking gas cap. I leave the key in the cap so I can't drive away until I've put the cap back on and my keys are back in my hand. On any cars that don't have a locking cap I put it in my pocket. I might forget to put it back on but I'll still have it when I remember. I will admit to leaving a couple on top of the pump before I started doing it this way

 

Use a rag....redneck gas cap!

 

Must be ruff getting old

 

Never heard of such a thing

 

Don't feel bad. I have a friend who owns a Standard station in Boise and at least 3 people a week drive off with the hose still in the tank.

 

Driving to a car show in a '62 Studebaker Lark and an older lady pulled up beside me at a stoplight and tells me that my gas cap was missing! I thought "oh crap", my gas fill was in the center of the panel below the trunk. Having just filled up, I knew I had to pull over and put something in the fill to prevent gas from slopping out. Fortunately I found the gas cap between the bumper and the lower roll pan!

 

I just put mine in the bed while I fill up, and somehow I never leave without it


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

And that is why newer cars have them on some sort of lanyard!
How many times have you seen someone driving down the road with the cap bouncing off the quarter panel and the gas door open?
KK

 

I carry a red grease rag behind the seat and I always set the cap on the seat on the rag so I have to sit on it if I don't remember.
So far I've never forgotten to put it back on.

 

My buddy showed up at work with the nozzle and part of the hose still hanging out of his filler neck one day.

I don't think you have to be old to forget the cap, in 1981 I drove off from the gas pump at the gas pumps at Grand Teton National park and left the cap on the pump. about 200 miles later the truck quit because the grit from the gravel from road construction had gotten in the tank and killed the fuel pump. Got it working enough to make it over the crest of the pass and coasted 7 miles down to Whitehall Mt where a kid at a gas station sold me his fuel pump he had for his 56 Chevy but didn't need because he was leaving for the Navy in three days.

 

When I was at Ford, the number one cause of check engine fails was "OBD Failure" caused by operators leaving the gas cap off after fill up and the second highest warranty cost.

This why you have lanyards, brackets on the back of the fuel door, or any number of other schemes to remind the person to put the cap back on.

I'm not sure if "capless" systems have made any improvement in the problem. They were just starting to implement "capless" when I left, but the warranty cost savings was one of the main drivers behind, and main arguments in favor of, adopting that technology.

 

My 31 Chevy tank came with a chain that dangles in the tank with a T on the end that prevents the cap from being moved to far from the fill hole. I think I bought the tank from a member. I am pretty sure it is a stock cap.

 

I build gas tanks and have started using late model Ford fillers. No cap to loose.

 

recently went to fill up at a gas pump, and the hose/nozzle were gone. went in to pay and I mentioned it to the cashier. she said that it happens fairly often - yikes! as for forgetting the gas cap: install a fuel resistant sensor in neck of tank that will activate a flashing "gas cap" warning on dash board whenever fuel passes the sensor - Ha!

 

Or portable molatave cocktail.

 

Well , personally as far as the new capless stuff goes I think it sucks. If your wife ( like mine mine) runs out of fuel and you have to put fuel in along the roadside , it is almost impossible you cannot get a fuel nozzle for a 2-5 gallon gas can in the filler neck.
It has to be the same diameter as a fuel pump nozzle , so you end up having to use a small piss ant funnel ( Supplied with the car and stowed with the spare tire ) then one person has to hold the funnel while another pours the fuel from a gas can, because the neck of the supplied funnel is not long enough to stay in the filler neck by itself. I have looked around a little and not found a good alternative yet. I may have to make something my self . However, I am also guilty of having lost a few caps. I now put the gas cap for my '30Coupe, my '51 Merc. , or my Harley in my Back pocket wrapped in a paper towel as soon as it comes off the tank.

 

My jackass brother left a 7-11 with the hose still in his truck. Tore clean off. He took it in the store to let them now and offer to pay for the damage. Clerk yelled him out of the store for bringing that stinky dirty hose inside. Did I mention he's a jackass?

 

Always try to double and triple check this before pulling away, one more time, even when I know for a fact the hose was put away and the cap reinstalled. Make it a habit.

Didn't know this drive away with the hose thing happens that often, I'd have guessed once every year or two, not once a week! One thing I've noticed when refueling, everybody keeps stuffing fuel in the tank after the pump gives that first "click". This is a bad idea. There is a vapor recovery system but can only handle so much, and not liquid fuel. Always leave plenty of room for expansion in anything containing fuel.

In the .mil aircraft and the fuel truck are always bonded together and grounded before any refueling. Fuel itself running through rubber hoses generates a static charge. In the sue-happy world we live in I'm surprised... Except that would give people something else to drive off with!

Used to see trucks all the time with a length of chain dragging on the ground. Don't see this anymore?

 

Distraction is the Mother of all Fuck ups.

I use a Hudson hub cap from the 1910s for a gas cap.
@37hotrod sent it to me, and may be the only hubcap from that era Hudson in the country, so I'm very attached to it.
In saying that, I've left it off once, and found it still in the bed so I got lucky.
I've got a plan for some type of safety chain, just got to do it.

 

Back in my service station days, I remember one time a customer driving off with the hose still in the tank, and THE PUMP WAS STILL PUMPING. Gas everywhere! I got to the emergency shutoff quick, but what a a mess. Had to cease operation while we hosed everything down, for fear of a spark. These day's they'd call a hazmat crew.

I used to tell the self-serve customers, always put your cap on the pump, never on your roof, fender or bumper. If you forget it on the pump, I'll find it and put it in our box of lost caps and you can come back for it. But if you put it on your roof, who knows where it will end up.

 

I usually put my gascap in the front pocket of my jeans.If you sit back down into your car you´ll remember it´s there.

 

..............I've often done the same thing. No need to wear any after shave then 'cause you'll smell like 93 Octane when you arrive at your destination....Don't worry if folks start calling you Sunoco.

 

Put some duct tape on the dash of my wifes OT car with DONT FORGET THE GAS CAP written on it after the third or forth lost cap incident.
She did not find it as funny as I did.