Let's see if I understand you correctly, you are saying that the unique design element that sets the 350Z apart from the Eclipse is the crappy little plastic fuel filler door?

Hmmmmm....... Maybe the Eclipse folks are working on an aftermarket fuel filler door that is just a piece of body-color plastic... then they can look just like the Zeeeees!!

What a business opportunity!

 

haha, I'm not knocking it, it doesn't look bad.. .. I just think it looks like an eclipse gas filler :P

 

Well, I finally came to the end of my fuel filler door saga! I can't believe that it's been over nine months since my first post to this thread and I am just now finished fiddling with this... man, I need therapy!

Anyway, here's what may be my last post on this virtually meaningless topic:

I received the door from the good folks at Accessories4less.com and was really put off by the super-bling shiny chrome. So, i tried to dull the finish to more of a satin finish by glass bead blasting. That wasn't to my liking either... still too much bling (and besides I managed to put a tiny "blister" in tthe chrome just about in the middle of the door!).

The next step was to disassemble the whole thing (plenty parts!) and take it to a local chrome plating outfit and have all the chrome stripped off the door and surround ring. Then I sent it off to Mike at ThePowderCoater.com and had him do it in gloss black.

My rationale for this (and I've had a bunch of time to analyze and rationalize) was that there is lots of gloss black on the car (pillars, wipers, antenna, 'tires', whatever) and very little except the door handles is "door handle color."

When I got it back, I reassembled it using "red" Loctite and all new stainless steel screws. I wasn't too much in love with the little bent sheet metal "latch" so I machined my own from Delrin (read: profound overkill).

The finished product is shown in the photos below. I know that many (most?) of you won't like it, but I really do... and, I guess that's what counts. It has a really nice "businesslike" appearance with zero bling, fits nice and flush, emphasizes the "flare" of the rear fender, and no, it does not look anything at all like an Eclipse (!).

Ok... I'm done

Here's an overall view...


And another angle, just a bit closer...


Here it is after pushing the "Open" button...


And here it is open...


Have a great week, everybody!

 

damn. VERY NICE. Now you have to worry about swirl mark on ss.

 

Quite a saga. I wonder...if you had it to do over again, would you take the journey?

 

You know, J. C., that's a good question... but I guess that I probably would. Retirement leads to all kinds of excesses!

Have a good one!

 

That looks great! I wonder how it would look on a redline with black wheels.

 

Looks great installed!
If anyone else is interested, its $25 plus shipping to powdercoat it.

 

That would look smokin' hot!! geez zee....CongratZ on your choice!

 

Very nice, looks worth it to me.

 

I have one for sell its like 2 months old like new. Asking 150 or best offer. PM if interested.

 

PM sent

 

Sold.

 

Thanks for the fuel lid TUNERZ33. I just had it worked on this past week to make it match the door handles. It is ready today, after trying different methods of doing this I think we finally got it right. My friend who is doing the job said it looks amazing. I have to check it out for my self to give you my opinion. Regardless I will take pics and post them when I get a chance. To be continued.......

 

Finally got mine done in carbon fiber. I posted pictures and story in another thread. Here is the link:
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....=1#post2762067

Teaser:

 

That looks pretty good. I still have mine installed but I'm still not sure of the chrome. How much did they charge you to cover it? PM if you don't want to mention it here.

Thanks

 

Looks awesome...can you show a pic of the whole side?

 

Will do soon.

 

Got mine done to match the door handles

PICS

 

Very nice. Powdercoat?