superj
Well-known member
i finally ordered a tj filler off ebay so i could move my fill point over and put my license plate back where it goes. but, i don't have a large hole saw blade so i had to do this the old fashioned way, the long long long way. so, this is for all you guys who don;t have a hole saw but want to move your filler to the side for easier fill ups at the pump.
first, get your tools out. this is basically everything but my cordless drill. i have an old school black and decker plug in drill because this is so labor intensive the rechargeable drill ran both batteries down before i was half way done.
grab your handy dandy multi-tip screw driver and undo the screws holding your stock filler in and pull it out so you can see into the area behind the wheel. you need to do some measuring so you can locate your tj filler bezel without drilling into anything important and making needless holes in your jeep.
i ended up measuring 9" down from the top and 8 1/2 from the back, i think. then i measured 5 1/4 back and it ended up being right on the body seam. it turns out, if you measure 5 1/4" from that seam at the rear of the tub forward and measure 9" down and then another 5 1/4 down form that and draw your square, you will be exactly perfect when you cut a 5 1/4 inch hole for your new filler. use your carpenter's square to make sure you are drawing straight lines.
see, right inside all the pieces you need to miss. (this is just a preview to show how perfectly those numbers matched up)
back on schedule: after drawing out your box, you draw an X, corner to corner. then, get your compass out of hte plastic box and draw a circle. you want the circle to overlap the seam line at the rear most spot a little. if you draw your circle perfectly, not the the first two circles i drew, you will have the circle i ended up roughing with a magic marker in black. its the ugly circle, not the nice pencil ones in the pic above. after you get it drawn in, this is where the long way of doing this comes into play. drill your self two holes at the 3 and 9 o'clock position. don't use a monstrous bit like i did, use a very small it and it works a lot better. i was learning as i went.
all those little holes took a very long time drilling. and, the ones from 7 to 1 o'clock have double metal so they take a hair longer to drill. that is where seams overlap and mean you have your filler centered properly because any higher or more to the front of the jeep and you would be drilling into the wheel well or into the passenger area by your rear roll bar mount. that is where measuring and remeasuring before drilling will save your butt.
once you have the holes drilled all the way around the circle, you can go back and get a hack saw blade and cut out the pieces between or just go back with your dremel and go from hole to hole with your metal cutting blade, like i did.
once you get the metal thin enough, you can just tap it with a rubber mallet and it will pop inwards and you can wiggle it out.
don;t worry about it looking rough or not perfectly round, you will go back with a file and smooth the edges. it still won't be perfectly round , like you cut it out with a big ass hole saw bit but the new tj filler bezel will cover it up.
you smooth the edges and then put some primer on the bare metal so it won't rust. once the primer is dry, you can put some paint on it and let the paint dry. be sure and put primer on the inside too and paint the inside of the hole you cut out. all the bare metal must be covered with paint or you will get rust that starts from an area you won;t see until its too late to fix and it has created a large hole. i didn;t get a pic of the primer and painting part because the kids were bugging me to go to the swimming pool. i did test sit the tj filler in though.
you test sit it in place and then align the holes so they are evenly parallel to the seam on the tub and mark them with something so you can get the small drill bit and make some holes. primer and paint those holes also, just like the big one you cut out. then put your new tj bezel in and put some screws in to hold it in place.
the hoses are about 3 or 4 inches too short so you can buy some hose to extend them and use whatever as an adapter between the original hose and the extension pieces you bought. this is the stage i am at. i have to go to the store and buy some hose tomorrow to extend the stock ones to the new filler. your stock metal piece that hooks to the filler body has 6 holes in it but four align perfectly with the four in the tj filler bezel and let the metal part mount perfectly with the spout pointing in the proper direction.
but anyways, once you are done, you will have a perfectly functioning side filler that is high enough you don't have to bend over to fill up anymore and your pump won't click off after only putting a couple gallons in and it won't shoot gas back out as it gets full. plus, you won;t have to hold the license plate out of the way and won;t get stuck on the bottom of the tail light.
first, get your tools out. this is basically everything but my cordless drill. i have an old school black and decker plug in drill because this is so labor intensive the rechargeable drill ran both batteries down before i was half way done.
grab your handy dandy multi-tip screw driver and undo the screws holding your stock filler in and pull it out so you can see into the area behind the wheel. you need to do some measuring so you can locate your tj filler bezel without drilling into anything important and making needless holes in your jeep.
i ended up measuring 9" down from the top and 8 1/2 from the back, i think. then i measured 5 1/4 back and it ended up being right on the body seam. it turns out, if you measure 5 1/4" from that seam at the rear of the tub forward and measure 9" down and then another 5 1/4 down form that and draw your square, you will be exactly perfect when you cut a 5 1/4 inch hole for your new filler. use your carpenter's square to make sure you are drawing straight lines.
see, right inside all the pieces you need to miss. (this is just a preview to show how perfectly those numbers matched up)
back on schedule: after drawing out your box, you draw an X, corner to corner. then, get your compass out of hte plastic box and draw a circle. you want the circle to overlap the seam line at the rear most spot a little. if you draw your circle perfectly, not the the first two circles i drew, you will have the circle i ended up roughing with a magic marker in black. its the ugly circle, not the nice pencil ones in the pic above. after you get it drawn in, this is where the long way of doing this comes into play. drill your self two holes at the 3 and 9 o'clock position. don't use a monstrous bit like i did, use a very small it and it works a lot better. i was learning as i went.
all those little holes took a very long time drilling. and, the ones from 7 to 1 o'clock have double metal so they take a hair longer to drill. that is where seams overlap and mean you have your filler centered properly because any higher or more to the front of the jeep and you would be drilling into the wheel well or into the passenger area by your rear roll bar mount. that is where measuring and remeasuring before drilling will save your butt.
once you have the holes drilled all the way around the circle, you can go back and get a hack saw blade and cut out the pieces between or just go back with your dremel and go from hole to hole with your metal cutting blade, like i did.
once you get the metal thin enough, you can just tap it with a rubber mallet and it will pop inwards and you can wiggle it out.
don;t worry about it looking rough or not perfectly round, you will go back with a file and smooth the edges. it still won't be perfectly round , like you cut it out with a big ass hole saw bit but the new tj filler bezel will cover it up.
you smooth the edges and then put some primer on the bare metal so it won't rust. once the primer is dry, you can put some paint on it and let the paint dry. be sure and put primer on the inside too and paint the inside of the hole you cut out. all the bare metal must be covered with paint or you will get rust that starts from an area you won;t see until its too late to fix and it has created a large hole. i didn;t get a pic of the primer and painting part because the kids were bugging me to go to the swimming pool. i did test sit the tj filler in though.
you test sit it in place and then align the holes so they are evenly parallel to the seam on the tub and mark them with something so you can get the small drill bit and make some holes. primer and paint those holes also, just like the big one you cut out. then put your new tj bezel in and put some screws in to hold it in place.
the hoses are about 3 or 4 inches too short so you can buy some hose to extend them and use whatever as an adapter between the original hose and the extension pieces you bought. this is the stage i am at. i have to go to the store and buy some hose tomorrow to extend the stock ones to the new filler. your stock metal piece that hooks to the filler body has 6 holes in it but four align perfectly with the four in the tj filler bezel and let the metal part mount perfectly with the spout pointing in the proper direction.
but anyways, once you are done, you will have a perfectly functioning side filler that is high enough you don't have to bend over to fill up anymore and your pump won't click off after only putting a couple gallons in and it won't shoot gas back out as it gets full. plus, you won;t have to hold the license plate out of the way and won;t get stuck on the bottom of the tail light.
