Cover for hole under Gas Tank and Seal around Steering column?, Wondering what fills the hole and gap Options

[sketchc13]

I have my gas tank out and under it there is a ~100mm hole on the passenger side and a gap around the boot where the steering column goes through the body on the way to the steering rack.

Is something missing? Coming from Wisconsin, the hole and gap are very inviting to garage invading squirrels to store their nuts and more in the fall and winter and it seems like something should go there....

Are there OE parts that go there or did any one fab something up for the hole and gap?

See attached pic... I have since cleaned up the surface rust.

Cheers,
Andrew

[bbrock]

Made you a "grommet" with the option to use the grill section I provided or your own. Love to see how this works for you.

Great, once I get it I’ll fit it up and get some pics and thoughts up.

@Mikey914 - The OD of the grommet aims the diameter of the hole unfortunately so it drops right through. Doesn’t seem to be a quick solution. Have any other ideas?

@sixnotfour - I may try to source one of those screens. Looks pretty good.

Thanks for sharing. That grommet was certainly worth a try. I'm also liking @sixnotfour 's solution. I think an important feature is that the cover be easily removable for reasons that Jeff said.

I took a year of my college at wwsc now wwsu in Bellingham and took a great field biology class. They had us simply bury cans up to the rim across campus in late afternoon. In the morning they were full of mice sitting happily under the cotton with the apple slice left to tide them over. The point I learned was the density of mice! My wife had a Honda that was so quickly replenished with seeds and bedding underthe hood that i can only conclude that the mice were running errands with her. Not sure what they must have thought of the rides. Squirrels on the other hand simply leave walnuts stacked on the exhaust. Lots of walnuts.

Yup. The population density of rodents is immense as is their reproductive rate that allows them to maintain that density. We get a lot of deer mice in the house because they get in the cars and then hitchhike into the house when we pull the car into the garage. The most practical solution we've found is to just have a wind-up live catch trap inside the house to gather up the mice for deportation. It's not because I'm opposed to killing mice. It's just much more efficient than snap traps because it can catch a dozen mice in one night without resetting. It's also a lot easier to just dump the live mice outside where they belong than dealing with carcasses. People often question my decision to release live mice unharmed but statistically, there is absolutely no difference. Even if I killed every mouse I caught, it would have no impact whatsoever on the local population or the number that wind up in the house. It would only add unnecessary work for me.

BTW, it isn't uncommon to have a mouse run across my feet while I'm driving my work truck down the road. They seem to run errands with me too.