My Alpha had a black aftermarket fuel door. It was a bit "busy", and the finish was not the best. I got a new chrome billet unit (aftermarket) for Xmas, so it was time to make the swap.
Now, every thread I've seen about the fuel door kept saying that they are held on with simple clips, and to just "pull hard" to remove. I didn't believe it with mine; I could actually see parts of threaded studs if I looked into the opening and between the fuel door frame and the fender; just "pulling hard" would've resulted in a broken fender. I figured that I would need to remove the fender in order to verify exactly how it was installed and remove it. But it's cold outside, and of course cold means brittle; I really didn't want to break any of the clips holding the fender on.
But after taking a closer look, I realized that simply removing the inner fender liner (5 clips and 5 10mm bolts) exposed the entire inside of the fender. Success!
Here's what my original fuel door looked like:
Her's the inside of the fender after the removal of the liner. You can see 2 of the nuts/studs holding the fuel door on. They were bolted through the fender and the fuel cup:
Here's the backside of the removed fuel door. It is set up to use up to 5 studs, although only 4 were used:
And finally, here's the new unit installed:
New fuel door, no broken clips, no broken fender...Happy Camper!
Now, every thread I've seen about the fuel door kept saying that they are held on with simple clips, and to just "pull hard" to remove. I didn't believe it with mine; I could actually see parts of threaded studs if I looked into the opening and between the fuel door frame and the fender; just "pulling hard" would've resulted in a broken fender. I figured that I would need to remove the fender in order to verify exactly how it was installed and remove it. But it's cold outside, and of course cold means brittle; I really didn't want to break any of the clips holding the fender on.
But after taking a closer look, I realized that simply removing the inner fender liner (5 clips and 5 10mm bolts) exposed the entire inside of the fender. Success!
Here's what my original fuel door looked like:
Her's the inside of the fender after the removal of the liner. You can see 2 of the nuts/studs holding the fuel door on. They were bolted through the fender and the fuel cup:
Here's the backside of the removed fuel door. It is set up to use up to 5 studs, although only 4 were used:
And finally, here's the new unit installed:
New fuel door, no broken clips, no broken fender...Happy Camper!
