Vampyrebat
Member
- Messages
- 3,203
The rubber degraded and snapped on mine a few months ago. I know this is a common fault with our cars (3200/4200/GS) as I have tried to get hold of another but they have all gone the same way. So I bought a sheet of 3mm rubber from Ebay (£5) and decided to fabricate my own.
First you need to detach the rubber connecting tie from the plastic cap holder, this is done by pushing out 2 very small plastic locating pins (I didn't know this until I was about to drill it through and one popped out) and keep them safely to one side.
Then I went about cutting out a new one using the old as a template (I made the girth twice as wide to make it stronger). Be very careful whilst drilling the small holes to fit into the plastic cap holder, this bit is a PITA and took me 3 attempts. The larger hole that locates the strap to the petrol flap is a walk in the park!! Also forgot to say before drilling all holes, run the holes over the drill bits to ensure you have the right size. I also had to file/sand down the end point that fits into the cap holder (both girth and thickness) as it is about 2 - 2.5mm.
Finally, I sanded down all the rough edges to make it aesthetically pleasing on the eye and so it doesn't look like it has been hand-made (and because I'm OCD)!! pushed the plastic securing pins back into the cap holder with new rubber strap in-situ.
End result..........Sorry the pics are a bit dark as my mobile camera flash is sh!t and I couldn't be arsed getting the car out of the garage as it was getting very close to Vino time!!
First you need to detach the rubber connecting tie from the plastic cap holder, this is done by pushing out 2 very small plastic locating pins (I didn't know this until I was about to drill it through and one popped out) and keep them safely to one side.
Then I went about cutting out a new one using the old as a template (I made the girth twice as wide to make it stronger). Be very careful whilst drilling the small holes to fit into the plastic cap holder, this bit is a PITA and took me 3 attempts. The larger hole that locates the strap to the petrol flap is a walk in the park!! Also forgot to say before drilling all holes, run the holes over the drill bits to ensure you have the right size. I also had to file/sand down the end point that fits into the cap holder (both girth and thickness) as it is about 2 - 2.5mm.
Finally, I sanded down all the rough edges to make it aesthetically pleasing on the eye and so it doesn't look like it has been hand-made (and because I'm OCD)!! pushed the plastic securing pins back into the cap holder with new rubber strap in-situ.
End result..........Sorry the pics are a bit dark as my mobile camera flash is sh!t and I couldn't be arsed getting the car out of the garage as it was getting very close to Vino time!!
