I’ve now filled all the large body openings (e.g. doors, trunk, etc.) and it’s time to build a cover for the radiator fill opening. This opening is right out in the middle of the sloped body nose and needs to be done neat so it blends in.
I started by making a cardboard template for the shape of the hole to be covered.
I decided to use a piano style hinge and Dzus style fastener on the cover. My first thought was to keep it very simple and attach these directly to the fiberglass lip/flange on the inside of the hole. After some mockup with the hinge, I decided to fabricate a base plate to hold the hinges and latch wire. Part of this is because the cover needed two short pieces of piano hinge versus a single longer piece. The cover has a crown causing a single longer hinge to bind.
The base consists of a plate with a flange around the whole edge. I decided to weld the flange on with a series of tack welds given the curve on the openings front. My “extra hands” stand facilitated easy flange alignment to base during welding.
The base flange has slotted holes for fill cover height adjustments.
I cut a piece of Al 3003 .063 just a little oversized and then added a crown on the Ewheel.
I then used a curved template to check the crown so it would match the surrounding body area.
Fasteners for cover to hinge and Dzus are exposed on the cover surface. This made countersunk rivets the best choice as the heads are flush with the surface and shouldn’t show through the paint. I used 1/8” soft aluminum rivets.
After trimming and filing to fit the opening, here’s the completed cover in place.
Completed cover in open position. The gap at the cover back edge needed to be wider than sides/front for clearance during opening. In addition, I cut a small groove in the flange just below the body surface to give a small pocket for additional clearance.
