HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door - The Ford Focus Forum

**dmich** · 09-14-2008, 10:14 PM

I finally got around to installing my Bullitt fuel door today on my '03 SVT today. I will start off by saying this was not 100% the way it should be, but I will point out where I went wrong and what would be the proper way to do it. I searched here before for a proper write up and found the details to be pretty lacking, so I will do a step-by-step for future FJ'ers to benefit from. This is also the method that will allow your fuel door to sit flush with the fender.

So, let's start!

Supplies needed:
- Bullitt fuel door
- Screwdrivers, Phillips and flathead
- 10mm socket + wrench for fuel filler neck bolt
- Torx bits for fender screws
- Dremel with carbite bit or similar
- 6 screws + nuts of your choice
- Blue Loctite

1. Remove the rear right wheel and jack up the rear of the car in the middle and put it on jackstands. Get it as high in the air as you can, you'll need the room to crawl around later.

2. Remove the inside fender liner. There are multiple screws and clips holding it in place. Beware the amount of dirt that will fall out of the liner; I suggest some eye protection at this point. For me, there were 2 screws in the rear, 2 screws up front, 2 clips next to the shock, and 3 along the inner side of the fender liner that you need to look up in there to see. The screws are a no-brainer, but the clips must be pried loose with a screwdriver.

3. Loosen the 10mm bolt for the fuel filler neck from the frame. DO NOT UNBOLT IT. This will just aid you in getting out the boot. If you unbolt it, you'll have a loose filler neck and it will be flopping around everywhere. While you're under there, pop off the plastic vent that is connected to the backside of the boot assembly which is closer to the top of the wheelwell. It will come right off with a little muscle.

4. Open your fuel door. There is one measly screw holding it to the frame. Undo it and pull it out, it will have a plastic mount/clip that comes out with in which the screw sits. Don't bother with the fuel cap strap screw because it's mounted to the boot.

5. Use any tool you can to make sure the rubber part around the plastic boot around the filler neck is loose so you can pull it through the fender.

6. Take a putty knife or similar and run it all along the outside of the rubber part of the boot holding it to the fender. It is on there pretty good and needs a little persuasion to get loose. Keep running your tool of choice around the boot until it pops off the fender.

7. However you can, pull the boot and fuel door (it's mounted to the boot) through the opening in the fender.

8. Now it gets fun. The fuel door is held into the boot assembly by force. It has two plastic tabs that need to be wiggled loose from their mounts of the boot. I used a screwdriver and pried one side loose, stuck a drill bit through the hole so it wouldn't go back in, then did the other side and pulled it out of the boot assembly. Here's what the plastic tabs look like.

9. Toss it out into the street, you're done with that thing. Now go find your new fuel door. There are two black clips which are held on with two screws on the front of the door. Grab a wrench and undo the screws and throw all of that junk out, you'll not be using any of it.

10. Take a Dremel/saw/grinder whatever and grind down the two bosses on the backside of the fuel door. I kept clogging up my grinder and the Dremel with the aluminum so I used a bench saw and carefully cut through the bosses until they were flush with the door itself. It doesn't look pretty but you'll never see it anyways. These bosses must be made entirely flat so the door will sit flush on the fender.

11. I mutilated the boot with a Dremel, but it can be made prettier if you want. As I said earlier, you'll never see what the boot looks like once it's in so do what you need to make it work. Fit your fuel door against the boot and see where you need to cut away material to get it to fit where it needs to. This doesn't need to be done on the car, hold the new door and boot together and you'll see what has to go. I took off about 1/2" from the areas where the hinge will be once the door is on the car.

12. Time for exercise. You've gotta somehow jimmy the boot back on to the filler neck from the inside of the wheelwell. Do it a few ways and you'll figure out how to get it in there. Make sure the rubber part that will hold on to the filler neck isn't bunched up. You will be test fitting the boot and seeing where else you need to cut the boot to make it fit.

13. I bent the tab upwards off the frame where the only screw holding the door on used to be. I then cut out a section of the boot to allow a bolt to go through a new hole which will be drilled in a minute.

You will now need to take your Dremel and file away a little at the two tabs on the right side of the fender to make clearance for the hinge on the new fuel door. Use your boot as a guide.

14. Here is where I screwed up, but will show to do it correctly. You will now hold the boot up inside the fender and then put the door on from the outside. I used painter's tape to hold the two together to allow drilling. Peek through all the holes in the door and see where you will need to drill. Once you're sure everything will stay together, run a drill through the holes in the door, into the fender tabs, and through the boot. Ideally you'd do it with the size screws you're buying but I didn't have them yet so I ran a small bit through just for fitment purposes. Mine came out like this.

I got a little too impatient and totally missed the frame on the upper lefthand corner. Ideally, you're going drill in the places below:

In the lower lefthand corner, no matter how I tried I couldn't get the door hole to match up with that tab, so I just drilled through the boot. This is important because you really don't want the boot flopping around loose inside the fender. You will end up with 4 places where the door is held on physically, the other 2 places will just be for aesthetics.

15. Go screw shopping. I went to Home Depot and got 4 #10-32 x 1 1/2" button cap screws and 2 #10-32 x 3/4" button cap screws and 6 #10-32 nuts. You will not be using any of the hardware that came with the fuel door.

16. Go back home. Bust out the drill and if you haven't done so make the holes the proper sizes.

17. Install your false screws into the upper and lower bolt holes on the fuel door and use some Blue Loctite to hold the nuts on.

18. This part sounds easy but unless you've got girl hands it's tough. Mount your fuel door against the fender. You need to feed the nuts on to the back of the screws from inside the wheelwell after putting the screws through the holes. I found it was best to put the screws all the way through, put a nut on, hold the nut with a wrench, and then turn the screws from the outside. You will work the nut back towards the boot/door and you don't have to fight with trying to tighten the nut while inside the wheelwell. I used blue Loctite on the threads as well. While under there, reconnect the vent to the back of the boot assembly.

18. No, you're not done. Now you've got to fight with the wheelwell cover. Reverse order of everything you did, except the clips might not want to go onto the studs inside the wheelwell. If that's the case, take a socket and pound them back flat and use the socket to hold it against the cover, then take a hammer and use it to pound the clips back on.

19. Mine came out 95% perfect. It could sit 1 or 2 mm further down the fender and it would be dead center in the old door mount, but without staring, you can't tell it's anything but perfect.

A little elbow grease is needed to make this work, but it looks pretty damn nice when done!

**Ataru** · 09-15-2008, 02:47 AM

Nice write up. I added it to the exterior sticky.

**nstiesi** · 09-15-2008, 09:47 AM

Excellent work

Good job keeping the boot. I know some people ditched it because it would make the door sit higher than flush with the fender. I kept my boot too, I think I did it in similar fashion as you (mounting it behind the tabs), but it was so long ago I barely remember, lol.

**Phacade** · 09-15-2008, 10:26 AM

At some point, I want to re-do mine to have the inner boot inside again. I love my fuel door but hate seeing ground when I look inside.

**rghop08ses** · 09-19-2008, 09:20 PM

Nice. I was thinking about doing the same with a rousch fuel door on my 08.

**Dan-O** · 09-20-2008, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rghop08ses

Nice. I was thinking about doing the same with a Roush fuel door on my 08.

Only issue with that is that the writing will be upside down.

**bondobandit** · 09-21-2008, 12:19 AM

nice how to. i might just do it

**Random** · 09-22-2008, 02:07 AM

Nice write up, looks good!

**abunai zx3** · 09-22-2008, 11:53 PM

looks good! good write up as welll

09-14-2008, 10:14 PM	#1 (permalink)
dmich TEAM Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Troy, MI Posts: 450	HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door I finally got around to installing my Bullitt fuel door today on my '03 SVT today. I will start off by saying this was not 100% the way it should be, but I will point out where I went wrong and what would be the proper way to do it. I searched here before for a proper write up and found the details to be pretty lacking, so I will do a step-by-step for future FJ'ers to benefit from. This is also the method that will allow your fuel door to sit flush with the fender. So, let's start! Supplies needed: - Bullitt fuel door - Screwdrivers, Phillips and flathead - 10mm socket + wrench for fuel filler neck bolt - Torx bits for fender screws - Dremel with carbite bit or similar - 6 screws + nuts of your choice - Blue Loctite 1. Remove the rear right wheel and jack up the rear of the car in the middle and put it on jackstands. Get it as high in the air as you can, you'll need the room to crawl around later. 2. Remove the inside fender liner. There are multiple screws and clips holding it in place. Beware the amount of dirt that will fall out of the liner; I suggest some eye protection at this point. For me, there were 2 screws in the rear, 2 screws up front, 2 clips next to the shock, and 3 along the inner side of the fender liner that you need to look up in there to see. The screws are a no-brainer, but the clips must be pried loose with a screwdriver. 3. Loosen the 10mm bolt for the fuel filler neck from the frame. DO NOT UNBOLT IT. This will just aid you in getting out the boot. If you unbolt it, you'll have a loose filler neck and it will be flopping around everywhere. While you're under there, pop off the plastic vent that is connected to the backside of the boot assembly which is closer to the top of the wheelwell. It will come right off with a little muscle. 4. Open your fuel door. There is one measly screw holding it to the frame. Undo it and pull it out, it will have a plastic mount/clip that comes out with in which the screw sits. Don't bother with the fuel cap strap screw because it's mounted to the boot. 5. Use any tool you can to make sure the rubber part around the plastic boot around the filler neck is loose so you can pull it through the fender. 6. Take a putty knife or similar and run it all along the outside of the rubber part of the boot holding it to the fender. It is on there pretty good and needs a little persuasion to get loose. Keep running your tool of choice around the boot until it pops off the fender. 7. However you can, pull the boot and fuel door (it's mounted to the boot) through the opening in the fender. 8. Now it gets fun. The fuel door is held into the boot assembly by force. It has two plastic tabs that need to be wiggled loose from their mounts of the boot. I used a screwdriver and pried one side loose, stuck a drill bit through the hole so it wouldn't go back in, then did the other side and pulled it out of the boot assembly. Here's what the plastic tabs look like. 9. Toss it out into the street, you're done with that thing. Now go find your new fuel door. There are two black clips which are held on with two screws on the front of the door. Grab a wrench and undo the screws and throw all of that junk out, you'll not be using any of it. 10. Take a Dremel/saw/grinder whatever and grind down the two bosses on the backside of the fuel door. I kept clogging up my grinder and the Dremel with the aluminum so I used a bench saw and carefully cut through the bosses until they were flush with the door itself. It doesn't look pretty but you'll never see it anyways. These bosses must be made entirely flat so the door will sit flush on the fender. 11. I mutilated the boot with a Dremel, but it can be made prettier if you want. As I said earlier, you'll never see what the boot looks like once it's in so do what you need to make it work. Fit your fuel door against the boot and see where you need to cut away material to get it to fit where it needs to. This doesn't need to be done on the car, hold the new door and boot together and you'll see what has to go. I took off about 1/2" from the areas where the hinge will be once the door is on the car. 12. Time for exercise. You've gotta somehow jimmy the boot back on to the filler neck from the inside of the wheelwell. Do it a few ways and you'll figure out how to get it in there. Make sure the rubber part that will hold on to the filler neck isn't bunched up. You will be test fitting the boot and seeing where else you need to cut the boot to make it fit. 13. I bent the tab upwards off the frame where the only screw holding the door on used to be. I then cut out a section of the boot to allow a bolt to go through a new hole which will be drilled in a minute. You will now need to take your Dremel and file away a little at the two tabs on the right side of the fender to make clearance for the hinge on the new fuel door. Use your boot as a guide. 14. Here is where I screwed up, but will show to do it correctly. You will now hold the boot up inside the fender and then put the door on from the outside. I used painter's tape to hold the two together to allow drilling. Peek through all the holes in the door and see where you will need to drill. Once you're sure everything will stay together, run a drill through the holes in the door, into the fender tabs, and through the boot. Ideally you'd do it with the size screws you're buying but I didn't have them yet so I ran a small bit through just for fitment purposes. Mine came out like this. I got a little too impatient and totally missed the frame on the upper lefthand corner. Ideally, you're going drill in the places below: In the lower lefthand corner, no matter how I tried I couldn't get the door hole to match up with that tab, so I just drilled through the boot. This is important because you really don't want the boot flopping around loose inside the fender. You will end up with 4 places where the door is held on physically, the other 2 places will just be for aesthetics. 15. Go screw shopping. I went to Home Depot and got 4 #10-32 x 1 1/2" button cap screws and 2 #10-32 x 3/4" button cap screws and 6 #10-32 nuts. You will not be using any of the hardware that came with the fuel door. 16. Go back home. Bust out the drill and if you haven't done so make the holes the proper sizes. 17. Install your false screws into the upper and lower bolt holes on the fuel door and use some Blue Loctite to hold the nuts on. 18. This part sounds easy but unless you've got girl hands it's tough. Mount your fuel door against the fender. You need to feed the nuts on to the back of the screws from inside the wheelwell after putting the screws through the holes. I found it was best to put the screws all the way through, put a nut on, hold the nut with a wrench, and then turn the screws from the outside. You will work the nut back towards the boot/door and you don't have to fight with trying to tighten the nut while inside the wheelwell. I used blue Loctite on the threads as well. While under there, reconnect the vent to the back of the boot assembly. 18. No, you're not done. Now you've got to fight with the wheelwell cover. Reverse order of everything you did, except the clips might not want to go onto the studs inside the wheelwell. If that's the case, take a socket and pound them back flat and use the socket to hold it against the cover, then take a hammer and use it to pound the clips back on. 19. Mine came out 95% perfect. It could sit 1 or 2 mm further down the fender and it would be dead center in the old door mount, but without staring, you can't tell it's anything but perfect. A little elbow grease is needed to make this work, but it looks pretty damn nice when done! __________________ 2003 SVT Focus ZX3 - RIP 2004 SVT Focus ZX5 - Goodbye you piece of junk! 2006 Focus SES ZX4 Last edited by dmich; 09-17-2008 at 05:12 PM.

09-15-2008, 02:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ataru Team Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Oklahom Posts: 13,519	Re: HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door Nice write up. I added it to the exterior sticky. __________________ Owner of SONIC the HEDGEHOG - 2003 Sonic Blue SVT Focus ZX5 [FJ] focaljet - GUIDELINES - GALLERY - [FJ]WALLPAPER - STORE - SPONSORS - SEARCH - Any Questions?

09-15-2008, 10:26 AM	#4 (permalink)
Phacade Team Sonic Racing Pit Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tulsa, OK Posts: 2,217	Re: HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door At some point, I want to re-do mine to have the inner boot inside again. I love my fuel door but hate seeing ground when I look inside. __________________ 2003 EAP SVT "Attila" - ST170 Headlights ■ Hofele grill ■ SAP rear defuser ■ Clear corners ■ Taylor 8.2mm plug wires ■ Saleen/Eibach suspension kit ■ Focus Central short shift ■ Steel Grey Rota Grids ■ Massive front strut bar ■ Euro rear wiper ■ Shorty antenna ■ SVT-logo Redline carpet kit ■ Powdercoated valve cover ■ Billet aluminum fuel door ■ K&N drop-in filter ■ Debadged ■ Euro HVAC ■ ...and then of course me (being a narcissist, I consider this to be the most important mod). ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

09-19-2008, 09:20 PM	#5 (permalink)
rghop08ses Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Land of the Ice and Snow and now a Flood :( Posts: 65	Re: HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door Nice. I was thinking about doing the same with a rousch fuel door on my 08.

09-21-2008, 12:19 AM	#7 (permalink)
bondobandit TEAM Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 215	Re: HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door nice how to. i might just do it

09-22-2008, 11:53 PM	#9 (permalink)
abunai zx3 TEAM Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Hawaii Posts: 102	Re: HOW TO: Installing Bullitt Fuel Door looks good! good write up as welll

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