The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop A-pillar rebuild- '47 AD

I am in the middle of an A-pillar rebuild. The door had been opened way too far. This has bent the door frame a bit, and it had dented in the outer panel. After that the door didnt close right, so someone gasaxed out part of the kick panel to access the hinges. Then there was a steel patch put over the top of the outer panel followed by a half-inch of solder all over. And rust at the bottom.
So.
I got repair panels and carefully peeled and picked off the old panels. The kick panel, the inner guard spacer panel and the outer panel came off. the door frame with the hinges remained. I bent it back as best I could. Its not too bad just slightly bent.
Then I went to replace the kick panel and the replacement I got was well different.
The spacer panel between the kick and the guard, in front of the hinges, is fine on the outside but well wrong on the inner, partly because I made a new curve at the base of the kick panel to have it fit.

I will make a new spacer panel myself. The outer panel, that the world sees, looks to be a good fit. (whew).
Questions
- what experience does anyone have of patch panels being significantly wrong?
-Has anyone done this job before?

I see there is no helpful info in the FAQs or Howto's so I will plot my progress, mistakes and learnings and write one up. Anyone got any helpful advice they want to add?

cheers

I suspect the patch panels are oversize to allow them to be trimmed to fit. But the spacer panel has the flutes in the wrong place to match those on the kick panel. And the curve on the kick panel at the bottom was well wrong and i had to weld new metal on. The patch I got for the base of the inner doors was about 3mm too long and I would need to cut it down. Lucky I didn't need all of it.
Other than these issues, the job is going well and the result will be good.

The inner cowl patch panel does not fit without tweaking.

This help? Try this SEARCH

What you have is the inner cowl or kick panel, the outer cowl, the inner to outer cowl panel and the door post. Most people find that the inner to outer doesn't fit exactly. I had to slice mine and re-weld. The inner cowl comes stamped with a simple curve at the bottom which needs to be converted to one with a changing radius, front to back.

Thanks for your comments.
At least I know other people have similar issues.
Yes I had to make a changing radius curve on mine, just the same.
I have now bought a sheet of steel to make a new inner-to-outer, should be plenty of swearing before its done. But it will fit perfectly.

cheers