Service Station style air pump

[eldirector]

I've been re-plumbing the compressor in my little shop/garage. For years, I've wanted some sort of "service station" style air fill station just outside of the garage door. Something I can use on the cars, bikes, etc... just like the old gas stations had.

Problem is, vintage air stations are NOT CHEAP. And, even if I had the coin to drop on one, I'd hate to put it outside.

So, I'm on the hunt for other ideas. What have other folks done, short of just hanging a hose outside? I REALLY like the idea of a simple regulator, and a gauge that reads tire and line pressure.

Any creative ideas?

 

[nh_yota]

Take a self-retracting hose reel and mount it behind the garage wall with a hole through the wall for the hose. Put some sort of trim or fairlead around the hole on the outside.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I have a 50' retracting hose reel mounted just inside the door. In the old days most gas stations had air near the pump. A few had the meters. You had to wrap up the hose and watch the pressure. Around here newer stations with free air just have a pipe coming out with the hose attached to a barbed fitting and a regulator inside set at 30-32 PSI.
I like my setup better as the hose isn't exposed to sunlight and weather.

 

[pdq67]

They have almost quit with the free air, air-hose around here!

In fact, I don't know where on eis at except for bicycles over on UMC's campus. It's just north of the Student Commons back door..

pdq67

 

[redmondjp]

I have a commercial-grade air hose reel (69' of 3/8" hose on it, so I can actually get all the tires on a car in my neighbor's driveway) mounted down low right inside my garage door (not accessible from the outside, which faces south).

I have a US-made Milton tire filler with integral pencil gauge for doing all of my tires. It is exactly like the tire fillers they had at the gas stations when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s and that makes me happy (plus I checked its calibration with a precision gauge at one of my former employers and it is only off by a couple of psi at above 50 or 60psi IIRC).