The gas door on my '70 coupe does not have a spring or over-center stop to hold it in the open position. Judging guide makes vague reference to something within the hinge itself. Parts catalogs list a spring for '71+ gas doors. What do I need here to fix this minor inconvenience? Thanks.
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Re: 1970 gas door won't stay open
Jon----
This is a VERY common problem on 68-70 Corvettes. On these models, the door is held open by a "u-shaped" spring which is attached to the inner,upper portion of the bezel by peened over rivets which are integral to the bezel. In time, the rivets give way and the spring detaches. If you have the spring, you can reattach it by drilling and tapping the bezel for two 10-32 screws or drilling and attaching with 2 10-32 screw and nuts. However, the 68-70 fuel door HOLD-UP spring, itself, is not currently and never has been available seperately . A reproduction of this bezel, with attached spring, is available through Paragon, EC Products, and others. This part is of "foreign" manufacture, but of decent quality.
Actually, the 68-70 fuel door bezel is a giant pain in the neck. It uses the awkward spring to hold the door up and a catch, spring loaded on either side, to hold the door down. In 1971, the design was changed to an "over-center" type spring. In this design, the same spring, located on the rear of the bezel, holds the door up and down. There is no "snapping into place" either up or down.I converted my original-owner 69 to this design in about 1973 after having replaced about 2 of the bezels for the break-off upper spring problem. However, the 68-70 and 71-77 fuel doors are different. The 68-70 has an attached bracket to engage the "hold down" spring loaded catch. The 71-77 does not need this feature, so it is absent. The 68-70 fuel door will fit on the 71-77 hinge with no modification necessary. Then, you can either remove the hold-down bracket so that it does not interfere with the 71+ bezel, or do as I did. I chose to leave the bracket on the door in case I ever wanted to return to the original design. So, I carefully notched the 71+ bezel to allow the bracket to clear it. As a bonus, this makes the 71+ bezel look like the 68-70 bezel at the catch location. This way you can use your existing painted fuel door, unmodified, with the 71-77 bezel design. Most of the 71-77 bezel and related parts are discontinued, but you can obtain them from several of the Corvette vendors, including Dr. Rebuild.In Appreciation of John Hinckley -
Re: 1970 gas door won't stay open
Joe, Thanks, as always, for your very informative response. based on your past experiences,I will do as you did and attach my '70 door to a modified '71+ bezel.Comment
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Re: 1970 gas door won't stay open
Jon-----
Actually, there is an additional benefit to making the conversion to the 71-77 style bezel. In fact, it was the primary factor which influenced my decision to do so many years ago.
The additional benefit relates to the fact that the 68-70 style bezels requires considerable force to be applied to disengage the door from the closed and latched position. Then, considerable force is required to engage the door in the open position. Next, even more force is usually required to disengage the door from the open position. Lastly, additional force is required to re-engage the door in the closed and latched position. To some degree, these forces can be minimized by slightly "spreading" the "hold-open" spring and regularly lubricating it with white lithium grease. Also, the "hold-closed" latching mechanism can be adjusted by turning the tiny adjusting screws found on either side of the spring loaded latching mechanism.
Nevertheless, under the best of circumstances, some force will need to be applied during all 4 phases of the opening and closing of the fuel door that I described. All of this "force" is transmitted to the rear deck surface which is a fairly large expanse of unsupported fiberglass in this area. In addition, the fuel door bezel is attached to the deck lid by four screws which fasten to J-nuts attached to a very thin flange which is an integral part of the rear deck fiberglass. I just don't think that it's a very good idea to cause all of this force to be applied to that surface, especially when a well-engineered alternative system is available. In fact, I strongly suspect that is why Chevrolet had the system re-engineered in the first place for the 1971 model year. The 68-70 system was kind of an "evolution" of the 63-67 system which was really inappropriate and ill-advised for the 68+ rear deck. But, for 1971, they got it right.
Now I realize that my "retrofit" suggestion may be reagrded as heresy by purists. However, there are times when function needs to be considered above form. In my opinion, this is one of those times.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 1970 gas door won't stay open
Having both a 69 and a 70, I was able to get a parts book from my local Chevrolet dealer. Used it a lot to order replacement parts. Knowing I needed the spring that supports the door in the up position, I thought I had found it in the parts book and ordered it. What I got was the springs that go in the bezel where the door closes. Haven't had to use them yet though, those springs are pretty durable.Comment
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Re: 1970 gas door won't stay open
Jim----
Yes, I've never heard of anyone having any problems with those springs. The two that the car comes with are a "lifetime supply".In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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