Fuel flap hinge

After stalking the forum for couple of years, I thought I sign up. Wife has a 2004 Jimny which she loves. It's small, tall and she doesn't have to worry about it getting scratched (she tends to do that) here in the narrow Cornish roads. I removed the rear seats and sold them off, as she hauls soil, compost and other gardening stuff in it. 

Disclaimer, I'm not handy with cars and have limited knowledge. I searched the site & internet, but didn't find any topic about this, sorry if it's been discussed, but I couldn't find any. 

She complained about the stiff fuel flap and I checked it out and looked like the hinge pin and/or the lower part of the hinge has rusted through. I tried to search for hinge only, but it appears that the whole flap needs to be replaced. Is the hinge is not rusted through fully, is it possible just to replace the hinge pin and if so, with what?

If that's not possible, I've seen some fuel flaps for sale but not in the right colour. Is it possible just to rough up the surface and then prime, paint & topcoat it with a kit like this ? How much prep work do I need to do to the metal? I have the tools as I do DIY / woodwork, but have no experience with metal work or fabrication.

If you can't get a fuel flap in the same colour it would be fairly easy to re-spray or over spray a different colour.

The kit you found looks good, but depending on how good the rest of the paint is I would probably just go for a rattle can with paint and lacquer in one. Also you won't need a primer unless you are taking the flap back to bare metal.

I would do the following, rub the new flap down to remove the outer gloss layer, but retain the paint, then just rub with a fine wet and dry to leave a slightly roughened paint finish.

Then, just put a few light coats of spray paint on (paint + lacquer in one, search eBay). Follow the instructions on the can, but a couple of light coats first, applying the second coat at 10 - 15 minutes means the first coat is still slightly wet and you good adhesion. If you make the final coat a bit thicker you will get a nice gloss shine.

Getting an exact colour match is not easy as the rest of the bodywork might have faded, but since you are painting the whole panel (filler flap) the difference might not be noticed and you can always T-Cut the car and flap after a week or so to get it to blend in.

Robin

Thanks. The colour is very faded red, but the cheapest flap I've found was a blue one, which would defo stand out a lot more than slightly different red. I'll take a look at the flap tomorrow when the storm has passed and see if the pin only is rusted or if the female part of the hinge is rusted through also.