A Pillar Pod/Trim fitting

[Lazarus]

Bank Holiday Monday morning I get a call from mawby (well, Tigger actually, but same difference) asking if I could help them out and refit an A Pillar Pod/Trim that had come loose in mawby's car, I said "No probs, bring it round", what follows is a little write up (with pics) to help out anybody else who wants to have a go at this...

I'm no expert on A pillar pods as I've never had the need to look at them before, but this is one of the aftermarket types that has no provision in-built to use the existing mounting hardwear of a standard trim piece (although it was supplied with velcro strips I believe)...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00082.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00092.jpg

...as you can see it's just plain fibreglass on the back, after lining them up together it looked like the only original mounting point that we wouldn't be able to use was the lower of the two button poppers on the forward section due to the lower guage being exactly there.

To recreate the upper button popper mount I had a rummage through my garage and came up with this...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00112.jpg

... this is a button popper mount from the back of an old vauxhall cavalier (mkiii) door card, all I did was cut the lug off the top at the correct depth...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00122.jpg

... and glue it to the back of the pod/trim in exactly the same place as the original...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0016.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0017.jpg

Next we had to recreate the three plastic tabs on the upper section of the original trim piece so as to use the original mounting clips attached to the roof structure on the car, again digging around in the garage I found a suitable offcut of plastic I had left over from another project, 2mm thick plastic card which I cut three tabs from approx 50mm long and 9mm wide...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0013.jpg

...you may be able to make out in the above pic that at first I cut them at three different widths, 8, 9, & 10mm, as it turns out this isn't necessary, 8 or 9mm is fine 10mm is too wide.

These were then glued in place as per the original, I used some drill bits to prop them up at the correct angle until the glue had dried, I guaged the angles by eye from the original.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0014.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0015.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00182.jpg

Once the glue had dried it was just a case of fitting it up using one of the orignal button poppers in its new mount and pushing the three new plastic tabs into the original mounting hardware in the roof (the very bottom is held by a tab that fits into a slot in the dashboard, you can see it in the very first pic)...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF00192.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0020.jpg

...and voila! an aftermarket A Pillar Pod/Trim with a factory fit...

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m66/lazarus71/DSCF0021.jpg

(...and Yes, I did use the flash on the last pic, it just didn't come out too bright)

A couple of points...

The glue I used (originally) was Rapid Araldite (two part epoxy), however, It didn't seem to want to stick to the back of the fibreglass too well, a couple of pieces did come loose after the Araldite had cured, I just used a bit of Superglue on the back of the Araldite blob and put it back in place and that got it.

Also, the aftermarket pod/trim seemed to be thinner than the original and there was a bit of slop on the tab at the very bottom, if we had been able to use the lower button popper mount this probably wouldn't have been an issue, but in our case it was, it was cured with a little bit of foam padding behind the lower section to stop it rattling.

There you go Lee, I did my bit, feel free to move this where ever you want it and comment as you see fit. :p

[Pete]

Very creative. Lazily I just used a small black screw in the right place to keep mine up.

[Lazarus]

This particular one would have taken more than one small screw to keep it in the correct place, more like six, and then it would start to look ugly. :)

[Pete]

It looks exactly like mine did with plain fibreglass backing. The rear by your head tucks into the panel behind and it just needed one screw at the top right of the windscreen.
http://gallery.mac.com/peterbarfield#100033/HPIM2182&bgcolor=black

[Lazarus]

This one has been cut short then, there is a 2mm gap between the trailing edge and the B pillar trim so it wouldn't tuck in. I did consider adding a little tab glued to the inside of the trailing edge, but once it was into the original roof mounts it didn't seem necessary.

[Pete]

This one has been cut short then, there is a 2mm gap between the trailing edge and the B pillar trim
Damn that's a shame. :(
Still, you've done a proper job of it. I think TrickTT (Rich) did similar.

[Pixelfill]

Quality job that Lazarus. It never ceases to amaze me how simple these things look when someone has shown you how to do it :(

I fibreglassed a bracket onto the back of mine, and fitted a M12(?) bolt into an existing hole on the A pillar. But nothing along the top edge other than tucking the end into the B-pillar trim.

Thanks for documenting this Laz.

Mike

[Kev.O]

Great work Lazarus. My A pillar pod was about 2mm short aswell. I decieded to use no nails and hold the pillar in place over night with some vice grips as I really wasn't keen on using screws either.

[Homer]

Nice work Laz, only an engineer would go to those lengths to make something work as it should :D

[SUPRALOOPY]

I just used an original A pilla.. perfect fit

[Lazarus]

Nice work Laz, only an engineer would go to those lengths to make something work as it should :D


Yeah, pretty @nal! I know. :D