Today I finally decided to get to work on repairing the rusty a-pillar. I'd been putting this project off because I wasn't quite sure how to address it, and it had been kind of getting me down.

I started by welding in a brace to keep the car from collapsing, then removed the center windshield support. Since I have all new replacement panels, I busted out the air hammer and spot weld cutting chisel. It's not kind to the metal. You can't really tell from the photos, but there were several holes all the way through the inner bracing (on the right of the second photo). The driver's side of the car looks pretty good--there may be some spots on that side that need patches, but they should be simple.

Anyway, back to the rusty passenger's side. I cut the rusty outer sheetmetal off, and after making some templates out of posterboard and forming a patch, I cut the inner structure out. This inner structure is 16ga sheetmetal, as is the patch. I made it out of two pieces again, because it had a bizarre shape that would be nearly impossible to duplicate out of a single sheet of metal. I'm extremely pleased with how it fit. After smoothing the welds down you can hardly tell there's a patch at all.

I didn't bother smoothing down the weld in the corner there because it doesn't interfere with anything, won't be visible, and Roloc discs are getting outrageously expensive.

Finally, I test fit the replacement windshield/roof support. It's a different shape than the factory piece, which requires you to use their center roof support brace (as you can see the factory one doesn't reach the new panel). I actually like this panel better than the factory one, because it's significantly lighter.

All in all, I'm extremely glad to get this part behind me--it had become something I was dreading. I'm even more pleased with how well it came out in the end.