Gas Door Popper

[bravekozak]

Time for a rethink.
I cringed at cutting the thick metal for the Nissan gas cap caddy without a bandsaw.
So, I just slid the whole thing under the Festiva hinge. Great fit!
I will accept a three point weld.
The weight of the door is increased a lot!
I just have to figure out how to fab a catch.
This mod will not work on a stock fuel door. The lock will be in the way.

I should mention that the stock Festiva fuel door locking mechanism will latch onto the Mazda 626 actuator pin, even without the Festiva spring catch.
I would bet that just adding a spring would make it pop, even if the fuel door isn't shaved.

[greywolf200]

This whole thing is so cool.

[bravekozak]

Almost ready to weld. I spent about a half an hour cutting up, hammering, sawing and grinding another Nissan fuel door from a different model. The line I drew with my marker was a mile off. I have to test the latch before final welding. The door is almost double the weight, but that is good since I don't want it to fly completely open too fast and bounce back.

I still have to relieve a tiny slot for the left ear of the plastic caddy as well as grind down the tops of the spot weld ears a little.

I will buy some paint and take a couple of edge on pictures of the latch, after it has been adjusted properly.
I would like to conclude this thread with a vid.

[bravekozak]

Testing the pop. Great news! It pops beautifuly.
Notice how I had to bend the tang back and then down.
I must have popped it at least forty times.
Bad news! The plastic fuel cap caddy hits the fuel cap.
It would have to be located much higher. I will leave that project for another year.
Is there such a thing as a narrow profile gas cap?
Welding time tomorrow.

[william]

I see you have already ground your paint off if it were me I would have used a panel bonding adhesive and skipped the welding .if that's a spair door it's not to late .I like 3m 8115. Its what I bond bed sides on with its great stuff.
Sorry Didn't see that you had to remove the lock I didn't even thank about it so even it you would have bonded the patch and the backing for the popper it would still need refinishing.

[bravekozak]

Time for another rethink.
I came across another fuel flap at the junkyard yesterday.
As you can see, the caddy is located above the fuel cap.
The catch is pretty much dead center.
I will now drill out the spot welds and check the fit.

[bravekozak]

Getting really close. This rough fit only took me about 17 minutes.

[browngirl10]

I have the 121 popper if I ever get it installed - but they are exactly alike

So I'm lost 121 and 323 what's that mean?

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[bravekozak]

Mazda 121 and Mazda 323.
They are both Mazda car models.

[azgtx]

If anyone is interested I have the gas door,popper and hatch release with cables and levers..from a bf 323. Lmk

[bravekozak]

Shaved + base/clear

Welded + base

The final post will be a video of it in action.

[greywolf200]

That is super cool.

[bravekozak]

grey, I'm glad you like it.

This is what it looks like installed.

Here is a pic of the caddy in action.

[1990new]

Looks fantastic...and I'm sure it works perfect.

[meyek91974]

Removing the part of the key lock that is the inner small arm that catches to latch and keeping the rest of the key cylinder there so you don't have to fill n paint a hole, I would think that I, you, could use a small dime-size supermagnet. I bought a 3 pack of these chrome or nickel coated things at Home Depot for a few dollars. This way the magnet in the door would hold it closed and you'd use your finger tip to open the door. - Use a tiny drop of Gorilla Glue in the needle applicator for a real clean adhesion.