Well thats the new fuel cap all fitted , i will run through my process as best as i can.....
First off i painted the new fuel cap cover, i decided to go with black as black and silver look good together and also i fitted a black spoiler so all blends in nice!. I used plasti-kote and gave it 4 coats as this stuff dries in 5 min! But gave the last coat a few hours before fitting
I then removed the original fuel cap cover by simply twisting it , i then used electrical tape to protect the cars paint work as i prefer this to masking tape for small areas as its more dense, as you will see i have not used tape around the whole area as the clips are only in 3 places so there is no need, here is a picture of the clips location...
Now a picture after i protected the area...
I now jacked up the car and braced both front wheels so the car could not roll forward on me , i removed the wheel and started to remove the inner fender panel , which is held in by 2 plastic nuts, these are simple to get to if you take the time to remove the actually wheel, i used a pair of mole grips to remove these, then there are about 4 or 5 plastic scrivets to remove, these are obvious to see, you may have to hold the back part as the screw may just turn and not remove, you will see from the pic i actually removed my arch trim as i just found it easier but this is not necessary
with the fender removed you will now see the fuel hose exposed, there are 2 nuts holding this in place, one facing you and the other at the top of the hose neck, i removed these so i could maneuvre the fuel filler hose...
At this point i actually found it easier to cut and remove the rubber around the fuel nozzle so i could maneuvre it , i found it easier to prise up the original cover with a flat blunt knife and then insert a screwdriver to lift the clips, i wrapped both my blunt knife and srewdriver in tape so i would not damage or scratch the paint! i then removed the old part. You will see from this picture that on the left one of the metal clips as bent out , i simply pushed this back, it bent when removing the old unit, it was not clipped in , it must just have been the way i removed the old one.
Ok so now i fitted the new part , this is simple to fit and just clips into place, make sure you line up the lock actuator so it can freely open and close, i have heard people saying this fell into the car and took them ages to fish it out, i don't know if its different on gen 1 but i don't see how this could happen as its not part of anything you remove! you don't touch the lock mech at all. Remember to Take the old fuel twist cap off the old unit by simply pulling it, this is the part that just hangs when filling your car with fuel, held on by rubber, attach this by simply pushing it into the new part with a small screwdriver....
Now its time to fit the newly painted cover , this again simply just clips into place , it just fits over the newly fitted part and clips in....
Now take the new chrome cover and screw this into place with the supplied hex screw...
Well thats it all done! A job worth doing in my opinion
