I decided to treat myself to the Aston filler cap from Chris at Brasscraft along with the filler hose and clips etc from CBS. The filler flange that the Aston cap attaches to i had already got from Brasscraft last year. Allot of people do say that Chris's products are expensive (and i agree they are) but they certainly have a top class quality to them, and you would be hard pushed to find a better quality item, so worth the money in my opinion.
I intended to initially bond the filler flange to the body as so that no fixings were visible and kept with my "clean lines" theory that i was wanting to achieve. This plan sharp went out the window when the filler hose arrived. I ordered the heavy duty filler hose rather than the super flex stuff as i was trying to avoid fuel vapour smell in the boot once completed. However the heavy duty hose is so rigid that the amount of pressure it would put on the filler flange meant that it would never have bonded in a million years, so drill the flange and countersink the heads.
First job was to cut the access hole in the inner wing so the hose can pass from the cap to the tank. Not an enjoyable task to be honest, as the hose is very rigid so not easy to flex through the gap, and when cutting the hole i wanted it to fit nicely, rather than to big. Once the hole was cut it needs to be edged with some off cut of rubber bonnet seal. After paint and IVA i will seal round the gap with some silicon to stop the weather invading the boot area. I have also cut the hole big enough for the filler breather pipe which is just a length of 10mm fuel hose.
With the length pretty much done, now was time to drill and fit the top flange. Chris machines in the fixing positions equally around edge so its just a simple case of drilling through and then counter sinking the heads of the screws. When you get the filler cap you will also get some paper washer/gaskets that fit into the cap and will adjust the lock down position. So if you need to rotate the cap a bit you can just insert x amount of washers and it will reduce the amount of rotation before locking out. After checking with AK regarding this i was advised not to use any of the washers/gaskets so that the cap screws all the way down onto the flange. This is to do with the final height and orientation of the filler for IVA requirements.
When it comes to the screw/bolt heads i ordered stainless steel socket heads so that they fit the recess nicely and fixing using an allen key. The only way i was able to cut the countersunk recess was with a larger drill bit then to slowly open up with the dremmel. I do have a bit to do it but with the threads for the filler cap it would have made a terrible mess of the polished finish. Overall it looks ok, not perfect, but not noticeable unless you really look, and half the heads are covered when the cap is screwed down. So move on to fitting the flange to the body.
Before any cutting and drilling the cap needs to be screwed down and roughly put into position. You need to make sure that when the cap is open that it doesn't flip back and touch the bodywork, same with the release clip. This is something i hadn't even considered until i checked with Wendi at AK. Imagine getting the car all painted and then when you open the cap you chip the paint i would have been gutted!!