Fuel pump access

[Pavel14]

        Here's a couple more pictures of the "hatch" I made. Understand, this is an old Willys wagon that has wooden slats over the valleys of the steel bed. It worked out well. Perhaps i can do the same in our "new" Sidekick...

I removed the Willys fuel tank first, wanting to avoid any possible explosion and then attacked the floor with my jigsaw (careful measurement and four corner 'pilot' holes drilled first). Once the hole was cut and dressed, I made up a frame (arrow) from 16 gauge that would provide a base for the hatch to be fastened down. It takes a little time to mimic the contour of the floor and to weld up the four pieces into a nicely fitting frame.

A simple foam gasket was fashioned and the subfloor hatch frame was screwed down with pan-head sheet metal screws left over from a steel stud wall project. It is important to make the hatch as air (or carbon monoxide or fire) tight as possible. As mentioned before, I knew manufacturers don't like any holes in the passenger cabin structure but since our Volvo 850 has such a hatch, it seemed like a reasonable risk - after all Volvos are pretty safe vehicles.