Flush-mount saddle tank doors?

[davepl]

I searched around the threads I could find on fuel filler doors, but I get the feeling I'm missing a lot of assumed information, so maybe it's worth bringing up again:

I have a Longhorn that has dual aux tanks, and hence, dual aux tank doors. They're not really the most attractive things in the world, and I'd like to keep the tanks but downplay the doors.

I was thinking about having a bodyshop graft in flush-mount, body-color square doors, if I could find a nice donor. But since I have one on each side, unless they're truly symmetrical that might be problematic flipping them over side to side.

I guess that's sort of my long-winded way of saying: I'm sure others have solved this before, so instead of reinventing the wheel, is there a kit available? Or a common donor vehicle that people harvest doors from?

As always, a picture or two is worth a thousand words!

Just to be clear, my goal is to either hide them or at least get them body-color, not some billet replacement. And it's an otherwise stock restoration, so something that would pass for period-correct is best for me!

Thanks for the help!

_ Dave

[mcmlxix]

76-87 era trucks had dual tank options, so in theory they should have square fuel doors, one on either side of the bed, that you could have swaped onto your truck... I think Truks had driver side doors and Blazer/Suburbans had passenger side doors

Picture for example.

[davepl]

Thanks! Now I just have to find someone parting out a dual-tank truck of that era!

[GruntMoanCough]

You shouldn't have much trouble finding a rusted out square body bed donor.
Quite a few around here.

[special-K]

You'll be looking for 79-87 GM Trucks. There were dual wheel pickups through '88 and Crew Cabs through '91

[Livrat]

I have done several Aux tank surface "flap door" conversions, I looked into the 73 up square body doors and the curve of the body is way off and would take a good bit of shrinking and stretching to make them work.

Here are a couple that I have done in the past.

The two on the orange truck are mid 80's F##d F250 diesel doors, these did require some shrinking to make them line up but overall they worked fairly well.

The blazer (second picture) I use a 92 Dodge Dakota door and the curved worked really well, it did not have to rework them at all, I will admit I did not care for the way the door fit the hole and probably should of tended to that.

[GruntMoanCough]

Good advice and nice work, Livrat. The corners on the Dakota door go well with the body lines/shape, IMO.

[special-K]

Oh yeah, I was thinking about that after I posted the correction on what year square bodies had gas doors. I went along with it because of the need to have both doors open opposite ways and only GM trucks have tanks on both sides. I wouldn't care,personally,since you don't look at both sides at the same time. The common gas door to use is from a GM van because they are flat.

[Livrat]

Tim,
Good call on the van door, I totally forgot about them, that's what I used on my 69 extended cab..

[davepl]

So from the photo of the orange truck the door looks pretty much like you could turn it upside down... is it actually symmetrical enough to get away with that? Anything in the armature that would make that a bad idea?

There are NO decent wrecking yards within several hours drive from here, so if someone know specifically what to look for (ie: what year of diesel F250) that'd probably save me a trip!

Many thanks,
Dave

[Livrat]

Yes they could go either way, I grabbed them off a diesel truck just because there were two on the same truck, you can get them off any mid 80's ford, some have a single tank others have dual tanks
http://www.f150forum.com/attachments...-f-150-001.jpg

All of the doors I pictured came from Budget truck Wrecking in Auburn.

[Livrat]

The biggest down side of the Ford doors are that the hinge sticks through the inner box side, necessitating a cover, I welded a small box on the side of the factory Blazer/72 aux filler covers

[special-K]

Sweet job,BTW.