Front door pillar total rebuild

[Mick_Anik]

I've just seen Dan Harris's post in which he writes about having to sort out one of the A posts as part of his restoration project.

Why not go all the way? Takes a bit of time, but that's all really.

With the wing and door off, grind away at the piece of metal which covers the hinge bolt mounting plates (the other side of the pillar to the one you see when you open the door) so you can detach it without loss of any the metal it is joined to. An easy operation. The bottom of this piece is usually ropey anyway, and quite possibly the top.
Then remove the internal dividing panel as best you can....if there is any left!
Then you can take out the door bolt mounting plates. Drill out the threads in them to make clean holes - the threads are probably suspect to due to the muck that the bolt dragged through them when you took the door off. The mounting plates are made of mild steel only, as I remember.

Insert a door bolt into a hole. The bolt may be a little loose in the hole, so during the next operation make sure to have each bolt pushed to the same side of the holes with contact at the 3 o'clock position to maintain perfect alignment with the holes in the door hinge.

Run a suitable nut up the bolt and tighten it. Then run a second nut up and tighten that. Then a third! Then, slowly to save the thread, weld the nuts together and to the mounting plate. Let it cool, lubricate, and remove the bolt with a backwards and forward action. Lots of lubrication! Then, with everything cold, run the bolt back into the nuts with lubrication and the backward and forward action. I'm not sure why, but getting nuts and bolts very hot does something odd to the threads, but this procedure sorts that out.

Repeat for each hole. Before the final assembly of everything, grease the insides of the nuts. Fit the door, with support to stop it straining downwards, and before you weld the new piece to close the pillar, plug the ends of the nuts with grease. With three nuts on there, the bolt doesn't protrude. This means that it will never, ever be difficult to take out a door bolt, and in doing this, no thread will ever be damaged. As I recall the nuts are 1/4 Whitworth, as the door bolt heads take that size of spanner.

While the inside of the pillar is available to be worked on, it's possible to replace the metal which the mounting plates sit in. You can also repair the bottom of the visible side of the door pillar from the back - nice!!

Then just fabricate the internal dividing panel, and finish off closing the pillar, jiggling merrily with the door as you go to get a perfect fit.
Before closing the pillar, I applied Waxoyl everywhere with a brush and then did the welding very slowly to avoid it burning. I don't weld long runs....in fact I never look at the weld. I get into position and weld a spot, wait (for the hot debris to fall), look, then weld the next spot some distance away.....and so on, until I have a full seam. It takes a little longer to do the welding and grind off, but I don't blow so many holes, so it probably works out just the same. And my eyes don't get tired.....the main benefit!!!!!!!!!

Like I said, there's very little cost to this, it's a comfortable, satisfying job (a large part of it on the bench), and it really brings the car up to factory (dare I say better than factory?) condition.

I had so much trouble with door bolts when was a lad that I couldn't resist doing this. Just make sure your welds on the nuts are good and deep and guaranteed never to break!

I'm curious to know if anyone has ever done this. I was lucky - I had the time to do it.

This is best done before anything else, as well-fitting doors give you a good reference point as you proceed with further welding.