One of those jobs that's been bugging me for a while. The fuel sender access hatch on Daisy was a mess. At some point in the past, someone had cut a hole in the floor to get to the fuel sender and just slapped a random bit of sheet metal over it. The hole was out of shape, misaligned, and honestly just ugly. It needed to be done properly.

Once I cleaned it all up, the full extent of the damage was clear. The edges were rough and the shape was all wrong. No amount of patching was going to save it, so the plan was to cut it back to clean metal and weld in a new piece.

With it all cleaned up, you can see how bad it is

I 3D printed some press-brake molds to shape the new panel. Having a 3D printer has been a game changer for this build. Being able to make custom tooling for a one-off job like this saves so much time compared to trying to bend things by hand or hunting down the right tool.

With the new piece shaped and fitted, it was time to weld it in. This is the first welding job on Daisy so I took my time with it. Once it was welded and ground back smooth, I hit it with some rust guard primer to protect the bare metal.

To finish it off, I picked up a proper Hayburner fuel sender access hatch to replace that dodgy sheet metal cover. It's a small detail but it makes a big difference. One less bodge job on the bus. I will very likely look into a proper solution to seal it off from the cab in time.

Hayburner Fuel Sender Access Hatch