Ran across this Internet picture while searching for some vintage Sears compressor parts. It's a vintage 1960's (early 70's) 1HP 12 Gal. compressor that ran on either 120 or 220 volt circuits. My grandfather and dad were gearheads and they worked together all through the post war era and into the early 1960's fixing and working on cars. But it was this little compressor that they saved their money for -- within less than six months they bought one in the mid-1960's and they used it to rebuild and paint many cars. I was always amazing at the productivity that those two guys could muster with only a small 12 gal. compressor. Air tools, paint guns, and compressors were very expensive at that time, and that little unit powered through a lot of cars.
These days most of us have much larger compressors in our shops, but in those days this was as good as it got for the average DIY guy.