Article By: Tyler Malinky
Relocating or replacing the filler neck in your gas tank not only gives you a custom look, but can help get the most capacity out of your gas tank. Todd wanted to use this Narrow Alien gas tank, which is 2.1 gallons, on a chopper he is building. The tank sits high on the backbone, and he decided to use a Lowbrow rippled filler cap and bung to replace the stock cap and location. When mounted, this allows you to top off the tank without gas sloshing out of the cap when riding.
The first step is to use a bi-metal hole saw to cut the stock filler out. We used a 2-1/2” saw which was a nice fit around the existing bung. Normally hole saws use the pilot bit as a guide, but since this is an open filler bung, the snug fit helped keep the hole saw centered while cutting. With a nice clean cut you can save the old gas cap bung for a future fabrication project.
Todd used a die grinder to clean up the
inside of the finished hole while I cut
a patch to weld in out of a scrap of old
fender. A little cutting oil or WD-40 helps
with a cleaner, faster cut when using hole
saws.
After a bit of time with a grinder and some sandpaper, we achieved a nice fit. It is ideal to have the patch panel flush or
lower, as opposed to raised, as it is much
easier to mud it before paint and raise it
up to match the existing tank and go for a
seamless finish. We used the hole in the patch panel from the pilot bit to hold the panel in place while it was tacked. Be sure
you can get the nut out of the tank before
welding it in place, or just tack a piece of
fill rod to the panel to hold it while you tack it in place.
After welding, the welds are ground down
and then finish sanded with a die grinder
with a fine grit sandpaper on it to blend it
in. We then proceeded to cut the hole for
the new filler neck bung.
The new filler neck was held in place and
tack welded then checked from all angles
to be sure it was right where we want it
before finish welding it.
The finished tank is now ready for prep
work and paint, and the small amount of
time needed to perform this fab work is
well worth the effort in the final product!
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