Hi everyone, I thought I'd share the build of my C110 coupé.

A bit of a back story, I purchased a white coupé back in 2008 sight unseen (just pictures on eBay). While the car looked OK the listing wasn't completely truthful and the car was really rough and full of rust.

It had been patched up very poorly and a lot of the rust was hidden. As I dismantled the car, the more parts I removed and the more filler I stripped, the bigger the problems were. Sure it was repairable but it was not the base I was looking for and it was too incomplete. The floor pan, around the windows and the sills etc were all rusted out so it was more than just your usual 240K rust.

The top is a bit more tricky to remake and was salvageable.

I had two fuel caps arrive from Japan this week so I pulled them apart to look at the lock mechanism. I wanted to have a key and lock with a key flap and none of the Australian deliverd caps seemed to have one, I just assumed they were missing. On closer inspection it looks like the local caps have no tumblers at all meaning that the lock does nothing, you could open it with a screw driver of knife. The lock barrels are completely different. The design of the caps is also slightly different to accommodation the spring mechanism in the JDM caps. I'm going to mod my cap to fit the JDM lock with key flap.

Some useless info, but still interesting to know.

But we got an actual cut key with the Australian delivered cars for the cap/flap? so it was more so just for Looks?

Yes, my car also has a key. I'm 99% sure that is the case, the barrel has no tumblers. You should be able to test it with a small flat head screw driver. Does yours have a key flap? I'll post some pics tonight.

yeah i have the key flap on both my cars, but your right neither needed more than anything flat to open it just assumed that it was warn out?

So the JDM one is the way to go then, since you ACTUALLY need a key to open it?

At this stage I'm going to say yes, unless someone can prove otherwise

thought you would have a brand new Aus one to check against? ^^

OK, the difference are pretty easy to see...

Edited January 16, 201312 yr by Adzmax

Tumbler wins. Hands down !

All done! Talk about a pain in the arse though. The whole barrel had to be modified to accept the cylinder and be able to use the key. The lock system has two groves on the inside for the tumblers to move into as the key is moved in and out. I had to make these in mine along with removing a piece of plastic and cutting a slit at the back so the spring mechanism would fit. Bottom line, if you plan to use a key, start with a Japanese fuel flap!

Japanese

Local

Edited January 16, 201312 yr by Adzmax

Top work as usual Adam!!! Might be ordering a JDM one now, that looked like alot of rooting around