A Pillar Modification

When this A pillar was repaired over a year ago it was done without the benefit of the drip rail or the door being in place.  Now that the drip rail and door are hung/aligned we can see we don't have a gap between the door and the drip rail on the inside of the car.  An interior molding goes here so the gap must be increased.   

After examining all options we decided to modify the pillar in the area shown.  A gradual taper was needed starting at the mid point of the pillar working down to a 3/8" gap at the bottom.

The drip rail was removed then the pillar was cut using a thin cutting wheel.  The pillar was bent into its new position then prepared for welding.

Using dozens of tack welds the pillar was re-welded into place.

The tack welds were ground smooth then JB Weld was applied to fill in any nooks and crannies.

The drip rail was welded back in place then we check to see how everything fit.  We ended up with a nice even gap between the door and A pillar as viewed from outside the car.

And we have a respectable "3 tongue depressor" gap on the inside.  This will be perfect for that piece of molding.

Body removal should be next.  Stay tuned for that!

More Fitting and Aligning

All right, I wasn't done.  Rivets, rivet holes, thinning fiberglass and general workmanship issues drove me back to the headlight buckets.  I marked the areas that needed attention...

then ground all the areas until the fiberglass was almost paper thin.

Those areas were then filled with fiberglass resin and matting.

After grinding the fiberglass, a thin coat of Bondo was applied...

then the front end was painted with 2 part epoxy primer.

Although I don't have pictures to support his effort, Ty spent several hours fitting the rear bumper area to perfection.

After all that hard work we loaded up the Corvette and took it to a local Friday night car show a few miles down the road.  It was a fun evening and several people stopped to talk about our project.

Oh yeah.  I got tired of people referring to my trailer as a POS so I made some minor modifications and gave it a fresh coat of paint.  I think it turned out great and I doubt Ty and Dennis will bad mouth it any more.

OK, so here's where we are.  There is one more repair that needs to be worked on before we can say "fit" is complete.  There is an interference between the right side A pillar and the passenger door that won't allow a chrome piece to be installed.  This interference can only be corrected by cutting and repositioning the A pillar.  Once this is repaired we can remove the body and start doing "finish" work.  Be forewarned, finish work will be a long process.

While the body is removed we will fix several items on the rolling chassis.  If you double click on the picture you'll see some of the things we need to do.

Check back in a couple weeks to see if the A pillar has been repaired.  Thanks for watching.