TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Aug 21, 2020 5:39 am

After thinking about how to drill the hole for the fuel filler for quite some time, i decided to go for it. For the record, every hole i drill on my Berrien is absolute agony. Once they are there , they are forever. My body is gelcoat not painted. So here goes:
-I mounted the tank in the body. I got the tank from ACME all converted. I was surprised by the quality of the welding (not pretty) but it will work.
-Made up a bushing to install a small cat toy laser in the center of the tank fuel filler neck.
-Mounted the hood.
-Using a paint pen, I marked the exact spot where the laser was illuminated on the underside of the hood.
-Removed the hood
-drilled a hole from the underside of the hood. Flipped the hood over taped the gelcoat and using a holesaw. drilled a proper sized hole for the stainless steel filler also supplied by ACME/berrien. Its a boat part with a screw off cap. very nice and robust.
-I put the hood on and slipped the filler neck in the hose connector. It stuck out 1 inch as the tank fill pipe and filler combo is too long. No problem, I cut 1 inch off the filler.

Now heres the issue: the filler is level front to back, the hood is angled down maybe 20 degrees. This lets the filler touch the hood on the rear, but leave a 1/2 inch gap in the front. The connector hose is very short and will not flex to allow the front of the foller to be pushed down.

My thought is to cut a wedge out of the stainless filler neck and weld it back together. I am looking for any possible solutions or even if a better filler neck is available. I will post a picture later today.

Fri Aug 21, 2020 6:54 am

Crude solution but put something very stout in filler neck about same OD as the ID of filler neck and bend/flex the tank/neck to get better alignment.... OR enlarger hole in hood to create full 1/2 clearance completely around filler... Or enlarge hole for clearance and put fuel door over hole to hide everything...

This was my solution for "clean"....

Dale

Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:51 am

The filler tube sticking out of the tank needs to be perpendicular to the hood, not the tank. If it's close, you could try tweaking the angle of the neck with a close fitting pipe/tube in the neck and bending the tank a little (most tanks are pretty thin metal). Unfortunately, no matter how you fix the tube angle in the tank, it will no longer align with your hood hole. That leaves you with Dale's idea - using a larger hole in the hood and cosmetic cover, with actual tank filler underneath. That seems like your best solution at this point?
Jeff

Fri Aug 21, 2020 9:17 am

The filler neck was welded on vertical to the tank. If I tweak the tank, it wont line up with the hole in the hood.

Fri Aug 21, 2020 4:02 pm

Have a machine shop make a cap to your design? If the OD is a little smaller and the bottom corners rounded it won't touch the body and it won't look like it was intended to lay flat.

Dale has a good solution too, install a door to reach your gas cap. I chose to use a polished stainless steel boat deck plate. It's like a locking gas cap unless a thief finds my hidden hand tool or has a boat deck plate spanner.

I feel you on cutting the body! My berry mini-t came to me as an uncut never installed body. Measure many times, cut a bit small, measure again several times through the hole, cut to full size with caution.

Fri Aug 21, 2020 4:21 pm

Filler with out flange....

Grommet...

Dale

Fri Aug 21, 2020 5:49 pm

I like it Dale! My filler neck was part of the tank, so I failed to consider replacing the whole filler to get the cap you want. Your idea can look good and harks back to early buggy history where a stock fill just stuck up through a hole in the bonnet.

Of course, if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket, or have the equipment to cut odd threads at home, a one-off machined gas filler cap would still be cool. 8)

Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:42 am

So, My "temporary" solution was to take Dale M's advise. I used a filler without flange. To fill the gap between the filler and the edge of the hole I had a spud gasket from a commercial toilet. Looks OK for now.

Wed Oct 07, 2020 9:35 am

vanderjw wrote: So, My "temporary" solution was to take Dale M's advise. I used a filler without flange. To fill the gap between the filler and the edge of the hole I had a spud gasket from a commercial toilet. Looks OK for now.

Looks clean and neat, seems like a forever fix....

Dale

Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:23 am

I'm going to cut a "V" below the flange of the $80 polished stainless filler and reweld it. That will match the angle of the hood. No rubber filler piece will be needed around it either. I don't have stainless welding capabilities right now so its destined to the "future projects shelf".

BTW, I also added a vent under the hood as the installed cap did not have one. I used a bulkhead style double hose barb in the tank sending unit with some rubber washers for seals. I cut the hose barb in the tank short as to minimize siphoning with a full tank.