Unusual flip-open oval radiator cap, ca.1930

[allcars]

Found an old and seemingly rather odd radiator cap.

 

Has a small push-button to unlatch the hinged pieces that provide access to the radiator filler... you lift the fin and flip the base up to reveal the filler.

 

There are no markings, but it seems well constructed and is heavy. The cap is oval.

 

Wondering if anyone has seen one before, and if so, what it was on, or made for.

 

Thanks,

 

Allcars

 

 

 

[keiser31]

I believe they are called "pail fill" caps and usually found on trucks, but that looks pretty ornate to be for a truck. I believe some Overlands had that style (I get Overlands and Oaklands mixed up sometimes).

[nzcarnerd]

Yes, brass era Overlands. There was a big Buick model around 1912 used it, too. No doubt other makes as well.

 

The cap here looks to date from the early 1930s. Maybe from a truck?

[Ozstatman]

Also 1912 Stoddard-Dayton as seen in this recent thread.

[Layden B]

Years ago I had a radiator with an oval filler. I tried for a long time to figure out what model of Stoddard it fit, only to find it wasn't Stoddard at all. My radiator was made by Kinwood and the detail features including oval filler that I thought were Stoddard were actually standard offerings by the Kinwood Company to the trade. My radiator turned out to be Lexington.

 .

[J.H.Boland]

It's almost the same as the cap on my '29 McLaughlin-Buick. The top strap is perhaps a little different.

 

Jim

 

[allcars]

That's it! Seems virtually identical to the photo Jim provided, and searching around the web, I've found confirmation that the design was apparently a factory offering for the '29 Buick. One source says it was a "late" 1929 cap, another seems to suggest it was an option – an alternate to the Mercury running man ornament upgrade. It appears to mount onto the oval base for the standard (or "early") round radiator cap.

 

Thanks to all for the comments. I collect vintage car images and the background on the earlier "pail-fill" types will be useful too, as I have images of unidentified cars with that type atop the radiator.

 

Special thanks to Jim Boland for the ID on the '29 Buick cap.