how to: shave your gas door

a simple saturday afternoon project...

youll need...
- a scrap piece of sheet metal
- template material (printer paper, tape)
- a welder
- a grinder with a good flap disc (i use eighty grit)
- a sander
- filler primer/ body filler
- a gas door with an unsightly lock sticking out of it.

first remove your gas door by removing the bolts the red arrows are pointing to, once they are removed you can get to the bolts with the yellow arrows that hold the door to the bed...


then strip your gas door of the lock by removing the clip that holds it in place, now is the time to get your metal prepped for welding by getting it down to the bare metal and then hitting it with some sixty grit...


now its time to make a template for that pesky hole, on smaller things like this i like to use painters tape, its easy to stick and trace, and when you go to cut the shape out of your sheet metal you can just stick the template on it and cut...


test to see how your new piece fits...


after a few touches with the grinder we are ready to weld...


after you have tacked welded completely around the new filler, taking time to be careful as to not warp your door, hit it with your flap disc on your grinder, it wont take much...


now its time for a coat of filler primer, sand, then a few coats of regular primer...



i thought i had taken more pictures but i think you guys get the jist.

i did the same thing..but it was a "last min" body mod. it was in the last hr before she was to be painted. i bent a piece of mine so it doesnt fly open ALL the time, some times it opens up like an inch but my girlfriend makes it a habbit to push it back in. there was a suggestion on here that you could use like a magnetic popper from a home sterio and it was a great idea that i me wish i had thought of before i painted mine...nice work man! -bf

or you can take the lock out and use mechanic's wire to hold the door shut like I do,hahaha.

Nice write up,but on our canadian trucks,those damn screws are so rusted you can never get 'em out! I

I need to shave my door and use a magnet or something.

yeah im going to use one of those two position magnets to keep it from opening, its one of those magnets that are on things like entertainment centers. you press it in and its closed, but if you press it while closed it opens a crack while still being held by the magnet.

Sheet, as expensive is gas is, and where I live, I'll keep the lock, thanks.

Good write up.

I thought when I read it as a title that the door was going to be shaved not just the key hole good write up though and nice work on it.

ahh my bad.