Inner B pillar 3

With many weeks passed I am happy that I have managed to actually get the profile of the B pillar back in and although it still needs polishing down I am happy with the finish.

The outer section of the inner B pillar was built the same as the inner skin and I just made a plate that fitted in and then seam welded it into place.



It was very time consuming and really getting it right took the time I am happy and know that I can clean the panel up.

With the B pillar done I started to work on the C pillar, I know this is going to be harder to make it work but the B pillar was good practice. I have started by making a cut where I think I am going to be able to make it work. Lets hope this goes well.

Plexi glass

With the roof chopped I know I need to find some glass to fit the windows, the front is not too hard, that is a standard laminate window which is cut to size, when it comes to cutting the front window I have decided I will send it out to a company with a 5 axis water jet machine though in the UK there aren’t too many of them…
The side and rear window in the mini are toughened glass and for that reason can’t be cut, there are people who say if you sand it slowly it can be reduced in size but having to remove such an amount of material would take months if not longer. I started to look for plastic windows. I know they can be purchased as some minis on the road and track are running them.
I called Kev from ACE (Association of Car Enthusiasts) who talked me through the standard and then pointed me towards the BIVA document of 290 odd pages. As my car will be subjected to the BIVA test I need to ensure I follow the guides. For the side windows the BIVA calls for safety glass which can be safety polymer too. To be classed as a safety plastic suited for highway use it is vital that the glass / plastic is marked ECE R43, if it does not have that mark then it is not suited for the road, basically illegal for road use. There have been quite a few cases of road track cars being pulled and fined for the windows when driven on the road. As a word of warning if its not ECE R43 and your driving on the road you shouldn’t be! Simple
After many hours of searching I came across plastics 4 performance, who advertise an E marked plastic window for a Subaru. On this I contact them and they quickly responded to say that yes they could supply the windows cut to my size, or supply them ready to cut and once the right size they would be able to stamp the windows and put the correct coating on required for the ECE R43, to top it off they said they would be able to apply the OEM style decal around the glass too.
All in all very happy, now I just need to really make a move with this roof so I can order me a set.
As for the warning about using non road legal glass, that’s your call not mine, I am doing everything by the book. Heed the advice and if you are changing the glass to a polymer and plan to drive it on the highway then don’t be silly pay the extra and have the windows marked correctly.

Inner B pillar 2

With the inner section cut out due to the complex shapes in there for seatbelt mounting I need to rebuild it. Since no seatbelt will be fixed on the pillar I didn't need to worry about the mounting point.

To get the curves of the original shape I took the corners off a spare section and welded them into place. During welding the second in I ran out of gas, with the gas changed I then ran out of wire... With the gas gone I had to use a disposable bottle and the valve on it was just terrible, even with the regulator on as tight as I would go there was no gas flow till it was on maximum. Never mind.



With the two corners in place I took a sheet of card and cut a template off the car, using a cut off tool and tin snips cut a steel template which I then proceeded to weld in to the car.





All in I cleaned the welds back to allow room for the next layer which I took the same approach to get the shape, seams to be working well so I am happy

Inner B pillar

Recently I have been spending my time on the B pillar trying to merge the inside together. For this I have had to remove a section back out to enable access to rebuild the pillar. The plan is to weld in an inside plate to the outer section of the B pillar which will fully bridge the join. The inside build will be made from a couple of sections which will build the radius and then I will weld in bent sheet section to add strength and probably slowly build the pillar, well that's the plan, have to see how it goes.