I've been thinking a lot lately how I'm going to put fuel in my rear mounted tank. I mean I know how I'm going to do it but I have just been nervous about cutting a gaping hole in the side of my van and not being satisfied with how it looks. My idea is to make a "dimple die" set the shape of the factory fuel door opening. Then cut a hole in the van and draw the two dies together, creating a recess for the fuel door that looks like the factory recess.
First, let's test the theory and the tools for the job on a busted up door laying out back. The goal here is to form the dimple in the sheet metal without distorting the entire panel AND, if all goes well, preserving the paint. Ready?
Let's do this!
First, clean busted up door
Then cover the area with tape and drill a big hole...
Now make a bigger hole for clearance around the dimple die with a sheet metal punch. (Are you beginning to see why I've left this part to the almost very end??? My van is gonna get a massive hole in the side of it and it's either going to look awesome or require tons of body work and repainting... good thing for spare body parts laying around).
Now set up the hydraulic tool that pulls the two dies together...
Hey! Look at that! The panel is ok and the shape is nice and crisp!
Ah crap.... well, at least the shape is good. This is only the first test. I'm going to try again in temps over 40F.
I'm probably just dreaming but I might try to warm up the area first and see if the paint can hold up better. I'm also not designing the final die shape with such hard transitions. I have some smooth radii planned for the actual dies I'll use.
watchtower, white whale, land yacht, big pig...
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