At the present, I do not have a steering rack protection cover and the fuel lines from the gas tank are vulnerable to road debris through the access hole. So I decided to make a cover for this access hole.

Note the suspension hard point on the left of the hole. This is the only bump in an otherwise flat hole. The cover will need a recess to accomodate this point.

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To make the cover, I used 16 gauge steel and made the size of the cover such that it overlapped the hole by about 1/4 inch all round. The small strip will be used to hold the mounting bolts.

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Welded the securing tab to the cover. Only welded 1 inch on the tab.

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Once the tab is welded, I drilled a through the cover and tab for the mounting bolt. The bolt holds the nut in place during welding.

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Bent the tabs up a bit to make clearance for the metal of the chassis.
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I made the recess for the suspension pickup with a couple of pieces of metal and placed in a vice. The cover is now complete.

I would have painted the cover the color of the car but I have limited amount of green paint left.

To install the cover, I put the top bolt in but loose and slide the cover down over the bottom bolt hole until the top bolt tab clears the hole, then slide back up into place and install the lower bolt.

Hi there... Out Off Topic... I'm kind of interested in your sway bar configuration.... Can you post some pics...? Thanks

looks like a 911 style underbody swaybar. (74 and later iirc...)