Pillar Talk

The A pillars on both sides of the car are rusted pretty badly. On the BelAir, the stainless "beauty"

The reality hiding under the stainless

trim that covers the pillar makes for some real ugliness underneath, because water and dirt washes down between the trim and the pillar, causing corrosion early on in the life of the car. The lower models fared better since they didn't have this extra piece of stainless.
It seems like just about every square inch of the tri-fives is being reproduced these days, including the pillars. However, the reproduction is one large piece from the rocker to the roof, and is expensive. Especially if one only needs the upper section, which I do. So, option two is to find a donor car.
As much as I hate the idea of contributing to the demolition of a classic Chevy, there are still some out there that would never be restorable but still have some good parts left on them. In my case, I stumbled upon a fellow from Missouri who was selling '57 pillars on eBay.
I wasn't aware that the '57 is slightly different from the '55, but the Missouri man was honest and told me so. However, he did happen to have some '55 pillars, although they were a bit rough (according to him). He sent me some pictures, I gave them the thumbs up, and a week later I was in possession of two fairly solid pillars for my car--and $250 bucks lighter in the pocket.

Donor piece cleaned and ready to be disassembled

Yesterday, I set to work on the passenger side pillar. First, I sandblasted the donor piece to see how badly it was rusted and to be able to see the spot welds. There were a few small holes in the bottom of the new pillar, but all in all much better than mine.
I first drilled out the spot welds on the outer layer, which is what I needed most. Once I gained confidence working on the donor piece, it was a breeze to grind and cut off the old rusty parts on my car. With the inner layer exposed, I could see how much of the donor piece I needed and cut that off, using it as a template to cut out the rot on my car. I probably should've done that in the opposite order, because I really could've cut out more on my car, but I was able to make it work.
This morning was spent cleaning and grinding for a couple of hours before I was comfortable that whatever I covered up would hold up over time.
I was surprised to note that the replacement outer piece, as well as the section of inner sheet metal that I took off the donor, were slightly different in contour from my car. Nothing that caused a problem, fortunately. I guess different factories had slightly different stamps.
The welding went pretty good. there's a few small gaps and irregularities, but they will be filled with

Outer piece removed from the donor pillar

seam sealer and metal filler. For now, I put a coat of primer on everything to keep from rusting while I wait for cooler weather so I can get to sandblasting the body. It's just too hot right now to suit up in sandblasting gear for any length of time.

Rusty pieces from the old pillar

Bottom of the pillar--a common spot for rust

The new pieces welded in. Not pretty, but it'll work!

A temporary coat of primer