I took today off from work to work on the truck, because as I figured would happen, other stuff got in the way and I did not get to do anything over the weekend.
I
allegedly made progress today. It's only progress if in a couple of weeks I don't end up having to take it apart and start over.
One thing I have to work on is that while the hinge bolts are screwed into the nut plate(?), it is not sitting in the cage. I think a piece of wire might help to bring the cage forward. As of now, if I were to remove the bolts, the nut plate would fall, and that would suck.
I took a lot of pics as I was going through it. I will try not to post too many of them. I will start with the "finished" product and then show some issues I had and what I did. As I look at the pics while posting, man that's one ugly looking job.
This is the end result, really bad welding and all. Still have to finish welding it up.
I took Matt's advice and started on the right and worked my way around to the left.
Then the bolt thing (technical term) dropped because it fell out of the cage. Searched long and hard for the hinge bolts and finally found them. Bent up the part and put it back in.
Worked my way over to the left.
Ended up over here. Now you might not agree with my decision on this, but there was no way to close this gap in the left corner. I determined that the filler strip I made to extend the pillar was not lined up properly. I took a spare piece I had cut from another A pillar part and cut a small filler for this gap. It will make it line up, fill the hole, and look cosmetically correct.
I don't think banging the part into the pillar would have made sense here. If the pillar edge was stock and not an extension piece I did, absolutely; but I think it's safe to assume the problem is with the extension I made.
