Some custom car manufacturers love to install gas tanks with its fuel pumps mounted internally. But how do you remove it if something goes wrong in the future? If you have a problem with this set up, read on to find out how you can fabricate and install access covers that allow the removal of internal parts.
For this project, you can choose a wide range of materials such as metal sheets around 18 or 20 gauges. These should provide you with enough strength and depth for fabrication. Let's proceed to the fabrication process. Now, there are many ways that for you to make your own access covers. It's good if you can take the time to sit down and draft several designs for the desired shaped and look. Besides that, don't forget to take the measurements of the areas where you want to install the covers. This will prevent you from fabricating access covers that do not provide enough clearance for other parts of the car.
Once you are done with the designs, and all parameters are considered, you are ready to begin with the fabrication process. For basic access covers, you can choose to use a milling machine to fabricate the entire cover. However, by using a milling machine, you are limited to square shapes only. This depends on the amount of clearance you have to spare as squares usually take up a larger space and may also look more cumbersome.
One the other hand, if you choose to fabricate circular access covers, you can use a hydraulic bending machine to help to shape up some metal tubing. For this, tubes of 1 inch or less in diameter should do the trick in saving up space and providing sufficient clearance.
Both processes can be simplified with the help of the respective machines. For starters, milling machines can only cut block shapes or certain angled shapes. You can do this by putting the metal sheet or block on to the working table and allow the cutter to cut out the desired shape for you. Of course, you will need to be really careful with how you handle the machine and make sure that the dimensions you marked are accurate and consistent, or you will just end up wasting a lot of raw materials.
A bending machine is rather tricky and requires a bit of skill though. In order to get a perfect shape, you will need to bend each section slowly and carefully. Furthermore, check constantly to make sure that you are still bending it into a circular shape. You cannot afford to make the slightest mistake in any part of the process, else you will have to restart the process from the beginning again.
It's really up to you to decide which method you want to use. But for this article, we shall choose the cutting method as it is simpler to teach. Now, take a piece of metal sheet. The design is rather simple; all you have to do is section it into four equal parts and cut them out. For this, you can use a metal cutter as it is not very thick. Once you have separated it, it is time to modify the edges. Well, the edges don't have to be really attractive since you won't be seeing them after you have assembled the entire cover. Depending on how you want to assemble it, you can either drill holes and fabricate joints or cut out slots that can be tack welded together.
Personally, we find that drilling holes for joints is a bit complicated as leaving sufficient clearance is rather difficult. So, let's just stick to tack welding, which is a lot simpler. You will need to be able to slot the parts together to produce a square. This means that two sheets will be inserted into the other two. Once you have got the desired shape in place, you can tack weld the edges together with a welding tool. You should have the frame now, all you need to do is weld on a hinge, and you will have a completed access cover!
At Jeff Lilly Restorations we specialize in building one of a kind street rods at our street rod shop located in San Antonio, Tx. Give us a call today to get your project started!
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