'A' and 'B' posts 350i

[Phil350]

Working on replacement of the sills as per Ian Sayers report
Removal of mounting bolts front and rear has revealed bases of the posts to be competelty rusted through.
Have not exposed much of the front post at this time. Question - can it be easily removed for repair and any tips ??

[Wedg1e]

The 'A' pillar helps hold the door up, so obviously that'll have to come off...;-)
I think the later cars have a cross-brace between the sides of the car at that point, but I haven't looked at the 390 to see how it's held together.
As far as I can recall from the Tasmin, once the door was off and the bottom bolts removed (or in your case (and mine) the plate has rusted away!;-) the pillar 'should' extract easily enough.
I used an off-cut of 2mm plate to fabricate new brackets, a good coat of paint will help keep the rot away for a while.
I used stainless steel bolts through the sills; although they don't have the tensile strength I think that the sort of an accident where it would make a difference is hardly likely to be one you'd walk away from anyway. I didn't mention the s/s bolts in the Wedgepages article just in case someone decided I was an authority, had an accident and sued me!
You may also find you have to doctor some of the dimensions of the sill plates to suit your car.

;-)

W.

[mikeb]

Hey Wedg1e, good to see that you are still 'on the case'.

Mike ;-)

[mikeb]

Oh, almost forgot.

Phill, don't forget to try and get some pics of the job if you can, I can update the article then.

Mike