Well it’s been a while since I last did an update, but you can rest assured I have been scratching about and keeping my eyes peeled for bargains and auction specials. So we’ll start this update with my fuel system. I managed to find a Brasscraft fuel filler flange with locking insert for the grand total of £25. Granted I still need the Aston style cap (like on my Cobra) but this flange piece alone is easily over £100 and ticks all the box’s for me. I specifically wanted a locking insert on my fuel filler as this acts as a seal to the fuel tank, along with the main cap. I also wanted the flange to bolt to the panel as opposed to just a classic mini style fuel cap that just grub screws onto a filler neck with no support other than the 50mm fuel hose onto the tank itself. Granted this fuel flange does have a little trauma damage to one of the thread holes but I’m hoping to be able to file/polish it back enough to totally disguise it…. Fingers crossed.
So to fit the fuel flange I first of need to prepare the mounting position on the body. The body tub has a raised area which is considerably smaller in diameter than my chosen filler cap, but luckily I am just going to use this as my cutting diameter as my flange is big enough to overlap and give me a secure fixing point and enough movement to align with the fuel tank below. So out with the multi-tool and a simple cut out and neaten off the edges. Then I dropped in the filler flange and got everything central and measured up correctly so I could mark the bolt fixing positions keeping them symmetrical.
The fuel flange dropped in perfectly and I was able to mark and drill the fixing bolt positions. I need to get about 6” of 50mm fuel filler hose to fix the filler flange to the fuel tank still and more importantly now I need to start to hunt for a 3 1/2” filler cap that will thread onto this. I will if i have to buy a new one but I know about 10/15 years back when the Cobra was getting built, how much i paid then, so with inflation etc… etc… it could be a tad eye watering for a new cap from Brasscraft. Still I’m in no hurry as such so I can keep my eyes peeled and hunt every auto jumble I go too and see if I drop on.
I bolted the filler flange into place and I have used the same machine screw stainless fixings as on the bulkhead and peddle box as so to keep the theme of the build consistent and the attention to the detail.
I also just borrowed the Aston cap from the Cobra for a second so I could visualise how it would look and it looks bloody terrific in my opinion. On the Cobra, with the filler neck being recessed it hides the cap slightly and whilst it’s clearly visible here it is top and centre and a real feature point for the car, so I’m pleased with that. However in true kit car building process, you venture away from the build manual and you create further problems… but only little in this case. You can see here that the filler cap latch sits fairly far back and so when the boot opens now I am going to have to restrict its fully open position and so the boot lid won’t void with the filler cap. The boot opens more than sufficient for normally use but it now can’t move past the vertical position and stay open on its own, still easily solved later on down the line with a boot hold latch which are easily obtained, or I might consider a nice bit of chain or rope whichever looks best.
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