1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

[William H.]

I have an early 1968 and did not know if my fuel door should have a spring to keep it open? Not sure if it's missing something or not. It does not stay in an open position. Thanks for your knowledge.

[Terry B.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Hi Bill,

Yes, all '68's had a metal type friction spring to hold the door in the upright position. Unfortunately, they were prone to breaking. As far as I know, they are not in reproduction. What I did to simulate the spring was to cut a 2 inch piece of small diameter hose and slice it open and insert it on the door hinge were it rubs against the open. It works great and is not visible to anyone.

Terry

[Jack C.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Bill. It should have a spring.

[Jim T.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

I tried to buy a replacement spring for my 1968 at least 25 years ago. Ordered the only spring available for a Corvette gas door lid. The ordered spring was for a later model. My 68's original gas lid stays open when I raise it.

I believe the 68-69-70 springs are the same. My 70's spring needs to be reattached to work. I believe it was a common problem for the gas door lid to lose it attachment but not break the spring.

[William H.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Thanks Terry. How does it stay in there unless I'm not following correctly?

[Edward B.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Yeah Terry. Can you post a picture of your fix? My 69 spring is missing and as you stated, NO ONE has a replacement. It's a real pain to hold the door open and pump gas at the same time.
Ed

[Terry B.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Hi Bill and Ed,

I'm having difficulties posting pictures. I have a helpdesk request out but I'm told it is not an easy fix. I will walk you through it. The first time you do this, you need to take the gas lid and surround (bezel) off the car deck. It should be attached to the deck by 4 screws. After it is off, notice the movement of the lid door hinge. The side of the hinge comes extremely close to the bezel when it is in the upright position. This is where you want to place your small hose. I made a slice on a small 1 inch long hose to fit over the hinge as it moves close to the bezel. It should hold the lid in the upright position. As the hose gets worn, occasionally the hose slips off but most of the time it works flawlessly. I hope this helps. It has for me.

Terry

[Joe L.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Thanks Terry. How does it stay in there unless I'm not following correctly?

Bill------


The spring was attached to the filler door bezel with 2 "spun" rivets. These rivets were integral to the zinc diecast filler door bezel. They were quite weak and often the spring broke off. The spring was NEVER available separately from GM. Once-upon-a-time, I replaced 2 bezels on my 1969 before I finally gave up. It would be possible to re-attach the spring (if one had one) by drilling and tapping the bezel at the location of the rivets for small machine screws or just drilling and using machine screws and nuts. However, the 1968-70 fuel filler door "hold-open" and "hold closed" system was an absolutely miserable design in all ways. The "hold open" feature required snapping the hinge into the spring with some force. Then, to disengage the hinge from the spring one has to pull rather hard. This places stress on the rear deck. Ever see stress cracks above the filler opening on the rear deck of a 68-70? That's how they got there.

The "hold closed" feature was just about as bad. This required a bracket on the lower edge of the door to snap into a catch on the bezel. The catch had 2 very small screws to adjust the amount of tension. Even adjusted properly, it still required too much effort to engage the bracket into the catch and, especially, to disengage it. Once again, stress applied to the rear deck.

So, what's one to do? Very simple and exactly what I did MANY moons ago-----use the 71-74 bezel and hinge. This design uses an "over-centering leaf spring" to both hold the door open and hold it closed. It's a thousand times better design than the 68-70. Although this design used a different filler door, the 68-70 door can be used with no real problem. In fact, even the bracket on the door can be left intact (to keep open the possibility of some later foolhardy re-installation of the original design bezel to satisfy judges) by simply notching the 71-74 bezel to clear the bracket. Otherwise, it's a "bolt-on" installation. What a dream compared to the 68-70 design.

By the way, the 1968-70 design was undoubtedly heavily influenced by the 63-67 design. What they did was take the 63-67 design, already a poor design, and make it worse. They "recovered" for 1971 and later with the best design ever.

[Edward M.]

Re: 1968 (early) Fuel Lid Door

Oh, the joys of 1968 gas door lids. And, in the case of the door open spring, 69 and 70 as well. Does any one (trim mold parts perhaps) make a good reproduction of the bezel?