BK you have to get us a couple pics!!


And I'm sure Jim will do another stellar write up when he gets to installing his trap door.

 

I am gonna have to experiment with this.

I like the idea of attaching the extra metal UNDER the hole, instead of on top of the cut-out piece.

The only issue I fore-see though is that the fuel bulk-head is almost against the forward edge of that second bed-cross-member and adding a strip of metal under the hole above it may very well interfere with accessing the bulk-head.

I will have to give it a close scrutiny and see which method will work best for me.

I may go with a combination, having metal attached underneath on three sides of the hole and the fourth piece attached to the top surface of the cut-out.


There are many ways to relieve the 'possum of his hide.

 

I had to do this to my 1st-gen quite a while ago.Since I didn't dare use an abrasive wheel near a fuel leak, I used a miniature circular saw with the blade depth set to just the thickness of the sheet metal. It got a little warm but at least it didn't throw a shower of sparks.

If it makes you feel any better about cutting a hole in your truck, Chrysler used to build them that way. My Dodge M-37 came from the factory with an access plate just like the one you describe in the bed over the fuel tank.