TECH -Pot Metal+Fiberglass+Washing Machine=Flip Out Taillight /Gas Fill

So what I'm showing you guys is how I build a flip out taillight/gas fill and latch set up for a 57 chevy cameo pick up ,I've built these set up on past projects of mine and they worked out great .This two point hinge set up can be used on other application as well, I got the hinge idea from my washing machine it opens the door out and open at the same time and I thought it would work perfect on a taillight , so I ran into a lot of obstacles when building this specific setup for the cameo , one was verry little room for the hing to move correctly, two the taillight housing is made out of pot metal , and three the bed side are fiberglass and there's no real good place to mount a strong hinge from , so bare with me and I'll get photos up as soon as possible.

 

So here is what I have to work with the taillight out and just a fiberglass hole

Since there is a ledge there I'll make a pattern of the inside contore of the bed side

The reason why I'm making a pattern is so that I can make adjusment before I make the inner structure out of steel .



here is the patter transfered to steel I chose 10 Gage since it thick and sturdy and I won't have any problems down the road with the hinge being mounted to something flimsey

I welded a flange to the top of the plate so it so it can all be removible and bolt threw the fiberglass flange .

Take notice to the bend in the plate to fit the contore of the inner bed side.

 

So this is where I got the hinge idea just notice how it just doesn't swing open

It swing out and open giving the door more room to move since it's pivoted in two spots


So here's the stare of the hinge out of paper , I had to try a couple of different sizes and arches of the swing to get something that was small and compact but yet still open up and out.

Here's the hinge, i didn't get to show the process of how I made the hinge since my camra died but I'll just explain the process I just took the paper pattern of the hinge and transfered it to a peice of 10 Gage twice to make a top and bottom , then I just filled in the center with 1 in strap steel bent to the shape of the top and bottom peices and welded them all together and grounded down all of the welds to make this hinge , I'm using door pins and bushings that were laying around the shop for the pivot points

 

So I welded two tabs to the out side edge of the mounting plate for the hinge to mount to

Now for the taillight itself. Since it's pot metal I can't weld tabs to it for the hinge. So I decided to make a metal backing plate to mount the housing and hinge to


Here it is in metal form, I made this out of 10 Gage I drilled holes in the housing and threw the plate so I could bolt the housing to the plate

 

Looks good. I was trying to figure out a way to put the filler behind a tailight.

 

So once I had this part done I new when the hinge swung open that the backing plate needed some reinforcement so I made another plate to attatch from the inner steel bed to the backing plate


Here's the pattern I came up with

In steel form



Just a view from the backside

 

So here's the taillight all bolted up and going threw it's range on motion



The spring on the bottom of the hinge keep the light from hitting into the bedside when fully open

 

i have also been pondering a way to make this work, thank you for this tech post, i just wish i could have seen how you decided upon the exact shape and dimensions of your "u" shaped hinge piece.

 

Now to the latch and how to open it , I knew I wanted to make it easy ,accesible, and just the push of a button , mechanical , and hidden so here's what I came up with, since the inside top of the taillight housing is kinda not seen all of the time I'll put the button there.

So I made a 3/4 round circle 1/8 thick peice and a 3" by 1" 1/8 thick peice straight out of stainless for the start of the button , here I just tacked it to the frame so I could line it up with the hole in the housing . Once everthing was lined up it was time to start making the mech of the latch to work


Just a simple pivot to make this work

 

Amazing as usual!

 

Very slick

 

So I ended up forming the end over to make one side of the catch .
and I made a backing plate for the other catch which bolts threw the fiberglass



Now for the fill tube I just pick up some 2 " u bends and cut and fitted the to make the new fill neck .





And it's all finished

 

That is just too damn cool. Good work!

 

Man that's cool! Just make sure you insulate the hell outta that tail light wire! Enough slack to open it means possible chafing from vibration, which means short, which means sparks, and if the gas filler neck is there it means fire!
But like I said......man that's cool........

 

Awesome job. Great tech.

 

Nicely done !!!

 

Holy crap. Most excellent.

 

That's very clever. Nice work!

 

Very nice, I have a 55 Cameo, and thought where I was going to put gas tank and fill... May I use your setup........???

Once again nice job..........

 

WOW! that is slick!

 

I'm stealing that one. Great tech.

 

very nice tech, i like it!

 

I dig the "washing wachine" hinge. Great tech!

Neal

 

Great Tech... thanks for sharing!

 

That's really slick!!

 

Fantastic!

 

I Love it! Thats too kool man!

 

I dig the latch.

 

very cool! and you make it look too easy...