Took a much needed shop day today and got the passenger side a-pillar structural stuff welded up.
This side was quite a bit worse for wear than the drivers side. Since the drivers side still had a non rusted lower pillar layer I could build the rest of the pillar around it. This helped to keep the alignment exact...which when dealing with the windshield is "kinda" important.
So here are a couple recap photos of the passenger side rust:
so definitly had some work cut out today...
Since all three layers were going to have to be cut out this would completly disconnect the upper and lower corners from each other. I needed away to support the upper pillar once it was severed from the lower and keep the 50deg. angle. It also needed to stay in in place without dropping downward or bucking inward or outward when the tension was released.
My solution was to take a thick piece of 3/8"x7/8" flat bar stock, and forge the lower section to match the countour and slope of the upper door jamb section. (this is the triangular section just below the A-pillar and above the top hinge mounting acces hole)
Look at your FSJ upper door jamb where it connects to the pillar and you will see the countour Im speaking of. Unfortunatly once you get below the actual pillar connection there is no more flat surface to brace against. This is why the stock had to be shaped before hand.
clamped in as tight as I could muster...
Because I am Me... I find it necessary to have back up plans for stuff even when the main plan is pretty much working exactly like I expected. So I measured and cut these two boards to have a reference for alignment if the bar stock failed and the roof shifted downward. I think if needed it would have been useful but all it did was provide things to bump my head on...
Moment of truth.. The A-pillar is officially disconnected from the lower cowl!!!!!!!!!!!! No going back now, its either get it right or bust...
The lower section of the pillar assembly was cut to length and clamped in place. Using the bar stock as the supportive layer to build around...
the lower contact area was drilled for plug welds but the upper junction was unfortunatly limitied to a butt weld...
I got a decent seem and the weld was strong, but I decided to add a small brace inside the lower section since there was no over lap.. Its a small 90deg bend on a flat section of 12guage. It was plug welded on top of the new section (as pictured) and a hole was drilled through the bottom of the original lower section in order to plug weld thru to the inside where it was out of reach :;):
Added the middle and top layer in the same manner as the previous post
Did some General weld clean up and added the inner gasket rail and inner support bracket.
I still need to finish grinding the inner plug welds flush before the finish filler is applied but Im not doing the finshing work untill all the corners are repaired. Thats gonna be a few weeks still so for today it got primer coated to prevent it from rusting. (in florida right now, the bare sheet metal will literally develope a light rust coat overnight...even inside the shop)
What a relief! I have been dreading this part of the windshield repair... Onward to the Roof corners... ::):
Thanks
JP