Fuel door removal

Greeting gents.I’m pulling the tank on my brothers 95 XJS convertible to change the pumps. Having an issue pulling the fuel door assembly from the filler hose …are there any tricks to removing this thing on the XJS conv V12? I’ve loosened the lower clamp from the filler neck and the 4 phillips screws are out of course, but I’m still experiencing what I believe to be unusual resistance .
I’ve removed both of the on my 72 XJ6 without issues,but this is giving me a bit of trouble.I have everything else handled…even those lovely fuel hose clips which was made much easier with the use of my $20 usb phone connected endoscope taped to a long screwdriver( BTW if anyone is having issues with those clips go on amazon and order one-theyre great the cheap Depstech one works fine). I digress… any suggestions would be appreciated. Nothing else on this car has been difficult every bolt,nut and connector has been pristine and very easy to disassemble. I’m going to have an audience when I try this again so please help me look clever-LOL. Thanks in advance-George