Fiberglass A-Pillar Trim Fitment & Underbody

[Drive Stainless]

I'm fitting the fiberglass A-pillar trim that I purchased from DMC CA and it's not sitting quite right. In fact, it's rocking back and forth on the underbody. It's also spaced 3/8" from the windshield. Since I'm not removing the windshield to wrap the vinyl underneath, the gap looks bad.

I have an earlier car (1604) and it occurred to me that perhaps my underbody is different. Please take note of the ridge that runs down the A-pillar. Do later cars have this ridge? It seems to be preventing my A-pillar trim from seating correctly.


Here is one side of the ridge, but you cannot see from this view how far it protrudes:
IMG_4314.jpg

Here is the opposite side where you can see how far the ridge protrudes from the majority portion of the underbody A-pillar:
IMG_4315.jpg

You might also note that my A-pillar has oval holes drilled into it. I think my OEM A-pillar trim had clips that snapped into these holes.

[dn010]

I do not recall seeing any kind of ridge like that on #5003. My laptop crashed so I'm unable to retrieve any photos at this time for comparison.

[Drive Stainless]

Danny Botkin let me know that all cars have that ridge on the underbody. After checking the fitment more, I realized that these things needed more help than originally thought, likely due to variations in the underbody, the trim fabrication process, or both.

While it would be easy to just install the trim as-is since these cars were never perfect from the factory, I care a little more than that. Let's see what a little caring can do. . .

I stripped the vinyl off of the A-pillars to better gauge where they were and were not fitting well against the dashboard, underbody, and windshield.
IMG_4328.jpg

When the vinyl was off, I realized that whomever casted these parts did so with the original identification labels in place, leaving a ridge in the gelcoat that showed through the vinyl:
IMG_4334.jpg

A little belt-sanding did the trick:
IMG_4389.jpg

Then I used a saw to make a cut to resolve the gap between the underbody and the edge of the trim closest to the windshield:
IMG_4329.jpg

This fixed it partially, but more cutting & grinding were needed:
IMG_4333.jpg

After I had it where I wanted, I used aluminum tape to hold the trim in place while the epoxy resin cures. This pic is after it had cured and I removed the tape.
IMG_4387.jpg

The triangle-shaped corners of the trim that sit on the dashboard were not flush. To resolve this, I cut and bent some aluminum to correct the angle and flatten them. Doing this will also allow me to adjust the angle slightly in the same fashion as the OEM a-pillar trim. Note that I also roughed-up the aluminum to prepare for epoxy:
IMG_4386.jpg

Then I clamped and epoxied the aluminum to the a-pillar trim:
IMG_4392.jpg



Stay tuned for additional fiberglass corrections, sanding, upholstery, and final installation.

[content22207_2]

There used to be a really good presentation by Mike Loasby on YouTube, where he explained all the problems the fiberglass underbodies caused during manufacturing, but it's been taken down.

According to that presentation, there is as much as 1/2" variance in underbody dimensions. It was a fit & finish nightmare (as you discovered when it came time to put your underbody on the new frame and discovered the body bolts didn't line up).

If you think interior trim is bad, check out Pages 254-260 in Celebrating the Impossible. Door fitment was so problematic that DMC changed the entire production sequence. Rather than putting the doors on last, they went on first (production sequence on Page 90 of Stainless Illusion is wrong). Outside wall of the factory ended up underbody/door/door, underbody/door/door/ underbody/door/door as far as the eye could see. As soon as an underbody/door combination was fitted well enough (not perfect), the underbody with its doors already attached was hoisted onto a chassis for the remainder of the assembly process. Workers had to duck around open doors without hitting their heads just like we do in our own driveways. Crazy.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[OverlandMan]

So how do you attach the a pillar trim pieces to the a pillars themselves? I was assuming some kind of adhesive but it would be so much nicer if they were easy to take on and off... like most modern automotive applications.

I was thinking velcro would leave too much of a gap and also lose its adhesive backing in the heat.

[dn010]

The below link is what I use for everything. You can also get a can of 3m spray adhesive or tubes of adhesive at your local parts house. Even without being glued under the windshield, they are adhered down along the weatherstrip edge and under the headliner so hopefully you won't be removing them at all once they're installed.

http://www.lowes.com/pd/DAP-Gel-Form...Cement/3005379

Edit:
By the way, my underbody had some areas where there was splatters of fiberglass or an area where it looked like someone tried to poke it with something and the resin/hairs pulled out and away near the base of the windshield that I had to smooth over or remove in order to get my post trim to fit. If I left it, the trim would not fit at all at the base, it wouldn't push in to the pillar enough. I guessed this was an error during production with my particular underbody.

So how do you attach the a pillar trim pieces to the a pillars themselves? I was assuming some kind of adhesive but it would be so much nicer if they were easy to take on and off... like most modern automotive applications.

I was thinking velcro would leave too much of a gap and also lose its adhesive backing in the heat.

[Drive Stainless]

So how do you attach the a pillar trim pieces to the a pillars themselves? I was assuming some kind of adhesive but it would be so much nicer if they were easy to take on and off... like most modern automotive applications.

I was thinking velcro would leave too much of a gap and also lose its adhesive backing in the heat.

They really don't attach with anything besides the vinyl glue. Curiously, my underbody has slotted holes where it looks like the A-pillar trim would attach with push-in clips, so you could add fir-tree clips to the a-pillar trim prior to recovering them. I may do that when I get to that point. Most of the other door trim attaches in the same fashion. It would mean that I need to add a thin layer of foam to prevent from seeing the fir tree clip backing through the vinyl, though.