Fuel door rust

[2050-Z]

I'll show you what I'm dealing with on my 280z, and perhaps get some advice!

What is the "interior of the fuel door" called? The metal where the fuel filler neck is mounted.

Is a replacement part for this made?

I believe this is a pretty common rust area, due to spilled gas? Has anyone done this repair before? Any good guides?

I'm in Seattle, if anyone has a recommendation for a good shop.

[cbuczesk]

I call it the fuel filler pocket. I have a spare. Yours looks ok to me but your 1/4 panel is rusted where it's welded to the pocket. I would make a small patch and weld it in...after I removed all the fuel related parts from that area! ;-)

Chuck

[hr369]

your rust doesn't look as bad as mine. I cut out the whole bottom area and where the quarter attaches to the

filler. I also removed the interior panel and checked for rust on the back side and blasted it with paint.

Its very important to get a good seam sealer to seal the gap to prevent water from entering between

the 2 layers of metal. Everyone should probably reseal theirs even if there is no obvious rust because its a common area for water to get into.

[2050-Z]

Yeah the rear quarter panel will definitely need to be repaired.

I'm assuming you removed the "filler pocket" entirely during the repair? We'll see if I can save it, the bottom edge is pretty rusty.

I'd love to simply shave the fuel filler door, as I will do with my sidemarkers. But I don't want gas smell in the hatch, etc., or a complicated filling situation. So I guess the door will stay...

Has anyone seen any "flush mounted" fuel door alternatives? Not looking for anything modern and obvious looking.

Edited May 31, 2013 by 2050-Z

[thriller]

Make sure you do it right; the factory seam sealer does little to stop rust and you'll find there'll be a good few cm extra rust you hadn't noticed, underneath the sealer. My 260z had the same issue. Didn't look bad at all from the outside, but once I'd removed the pocket I could see I needed to replace a lot more metal than initially thought.

Drill the spot welds out (3x each side I think?), remove the pocket, cut the cancer, replace, weld, seal. Good as gravy.