Passenger A Post Replacement

From the “What lies beneath” post, a lot of bad was found under the bondo makeup applied all over the car. After pulling the front fenders off, one of the glaring issues was a large hole in the lower part of the A post. Most likely water and debris collected behind the fender and up against the A post. As a review, the A post on the MG Midget is the vertical member extending from the sill to the windshield cowling. I has the very important job of holding the door hinges. Understanding the weight and forces on this piece, it’s critical that this component is solid.

As part of the sill and outer footwell sheet metal installation, I fully cut out and removed the passenger A post. This decision led to the challenge of installing a new A post structure where it needed to go with a very small margin for error. I had previously screwed and clamped the A post structure into place to help place the outer sill. I was able to use that prior placement as a start and go from there. For this side, I chose to drill holes for plug welds along the flange where the inner A post structure met the footwell side. In hindsight, I should’ve done the opposite (drilled holes in the footwell side panel). It was difficult to get the welding nozzle close to the work for the 20 or so plug welds. It was also difficult to grind down the welds due to the limited access. For the driver’s side I will definitely choose the other route.

With the A post structure in place, the next piece which goes on is the A post skin. The skin is a Z shape and covers the A post inner structure, gets welded to the boxes on the fore section of that structure, then finally meets up with the footwell sheet metal. The aft section of the A post skin is then folded around the inner A post structure. The top of the A post skin is butt welded to the windshield cowling and sanded to be flat and seamless.