A Pillar Seal and Holder Advice

[basher]

Hello All.
I am working on replacing the hood seals on the Elan. I have run into a snag with the passenger side and I need to re-align the A Pillar Seal and hence the carrier.
Typically the screws holding the carrier have rusted solid and didn't come out and instead rung off so if I need to re-drill some new holes for new screws.

My concern is that is there anything within the pillar that I have to watch out for if I drill in? Am I ok as long as I drill in the same general area as the originals? Obviously I need to not drill to deeply as I don't want top hit the screen - any idea on the screw type and length? Finally I was going to remove the inner a pillar trim to make life easier- any ideas as to how its attached?

All advice greatly appreciated.

[Saltire]

Hi basher

I’ve done this It’s actually not too bad a job. The A pillar trim is retained by two cross head self tapping screws concealed underneath the ‘leather’ trim at the top of the A pillar; they screw downwards into the aluminium screen surround. If you peel back the leather trim, you’ll see them (possibly under some sealant). Unscrew them and the pillar trim should then pull up and out. On my car the wiring for the interior lamps was behind the RH side pillar trim.

Most of my screen retainer screws were rusted in as well. I did get one out, which was about 10-15mm long. Steel screws in an aluminium frame never did work well I drilled the remainder out; it wasn’t too hard. Then I took the seal retainer off, cleaned it up, and repainted. I enlarged the original holes slightly and replaced the old screws with stainless rivnuts, then used stainless machine screws to reattach the seal retainer.

There is a good description of how to set it all up in the workshop manual. Note that it’s important to put a seal of some kind between the retainer and the windscreen pillar. The manual says foam, but I used self-adhesive EPDM strip from a well-known auction site.

First side took me a couple of hours, excluding paint drying time. The other side took a bit less, because I (allegedly) knew what I was doing

Hope this helps!

[basher]

Thank you, I’ll (carefully) give it a go.

[basher]

It would be nice, if just one of the poxy screws actually came out under their own steam rather than having to be drilled out....
Eventually, I managed to expose the top two screws and although they looked in reasonable condition, they just wouldn't come out.

[Saltire]

I feel your pain

Blame the person who decided to fit steel screws into an aluminium base. Wait 25 years, and electrolytic action does the rest

I think I used at least three new drill bits in getting them all out.

If it’s any consolation, when you get to replacing the fixing screws for the front side lamps, you’ll already have had a lot of practice . . .

[Rambo]

I feel your pain

Blame the person who decided to fit steel screws into an aluminium base. Wait 25 years, and electrolytic action does the rest

All part of CC's mantra of "adding lightness" The steel turns to rust, flakes off and slowly but surely your car gets lighter.

But there my theory ends because all those leaky seals, foam rubber, carpets etc.. all attract water which is heavy

[basher]

I know what you mean about getting through drills, its quite hard to get hold of decent quality ones- lots of cheap and cheerful about and they don't last.
Hopefully I'm over the worst now, I've got the window leaning in enough so its not almost outside of the hood, I can reset the seal so that it doesn't push out so much it stops the window going up and then reassemble.

Thanks for the EDPM tip, Ill get some of that today.