RV-14 Caps on my -8
Well it's been nearly a year since I was first introduced to these (then) new gas caps for the RV-14 at Van's.
Last week I finally got to the point in my project to modify my tank skins and get them to fit in.
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I haven't heard a better idea for enlarging the hole than what has already been discussed here, so I decided to proceed.
As stated by Aaron before, the rivet holes line up perfectly to the tank skins.
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From the inside side of the skin it is easy to reach in between the cap flange and the skin with a sharpie and draw the new radius needed for the cap to fit through the skin.
The 2" sanding drum made quick work of this.
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Once ready to sand, it nearly took me 20 seconds to go from here:
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To here:
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Getting pretty close to the line with the rough cut (or rough sand in this case). I then just kept going with the sanding drum with much less pressure for the fine tuning before going to the 220 sand paper by hand followed by the 400 as soon as the cap would pass through the hole.
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When I take the tanks apart for the final deburring / dimpling, I will clean up the hole one last time and be good to go.
After all the research and decision making on this mod, I think I will like it most do to the larger hole opening. As far as looks or anything else, I do like the machined clean look of the aluminum deluxe caps better than plastic. Once painted though it shouldn't make any difference in appearance.
Thanks for making and posting the first go of this Aaron. Hope your recovery is going well.
Tom