How the pros make an Unused Gas Door disappear

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get rid of unused body panels on a truck? With most ‘bagged or body-dropped trucks, moving the factory gas tank or swapping it to a new fuel cell seems to be normal when changing the rear frame section of a truck to add air suspension. By doing this, the factory gas filler location usually won’t work anymore, so you’re left with a gas door to nowhere.

We know that the crew at Phat Phabz in Choctaw, Oklahoma, relocates a lot of fuel fillers with most of their builds, so we reached out to them to see if they can show us the basic steps to getting rid of a factory gas door. They were currently working on a new Chevy Silverado that needed the gas door shaved, so it was perfect timing.

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Of course, the process of cutting and welding metal on a truck is a learned trade, so we don’t see this as a step-by-step guide to how to shave a gas door, but more of a look into what it takes to make a modification like this happen. After the process you see here, the truck bed goes off to a body shop where they mud it in, smooth it out, and paint it so it’s like the gas door was never there.

Follow along and see how much work is involved to making a gas door disappear.

**01.** We start by mapping off a square/rectangle around the original fuel door opening.

**02.** Cut on the inside of the pattern with a cut-off wheel or body saw.

**03.** This is the removed piece from the bedside.

**04.** File and deburr the inside of the cuts to remove any debris or excess material.

**05.** Measure and cut a piece of cold rolled sheetmetal from like-thickness material. Drill a hole in a corner to prepare for a Cleco fastener.

With most ‘bagged or body-dropped trucks, moving the factory gas tank or swapping it to a new fuel cell seems to be normal when changing the rear frame section of a truck to add air suspension