ncvette_1FUNRIDE

I had been thinking of getting my 'A' pillars painted to match my gloss black halo and 'glass' top to complete the 'look'.

I had been hesitant to do this because I had read somewhere about possibly needing to punch out some pop rivets and then moving that piece to the new 'A' pillars and then replacing the pop rivets.

Recently I read about a forum vendor that had hydro carbon 'A' pillars and several forum members that installed those, said that it was a simple job to swap them out and that it was just a matter of removing some screws and weather stripping and it only took them 15-20 minutes a side to do this swap.

NOTE: This warning has nothing to do with that vendor/part.

Then I came across this ad for painted 'A' pillars on the website of a different forum vendor.
As I read this, it seemed that installing these would be similar to what I had read about the 'hydro carbon' A pillar install.


BEWARE that statement is very misleading, IMO.

When I read that statement I thought it meant that I would just have to remove the 7 screws that hold the 'A' pillar to the frame (after pulling the door weather stripping pieces loose) and the just SIMPLY replace the 'A' pillar with those 7 screws. I now know that evidently the 'seven bolts' were not the screws but the POP RIVETS and there is nothing SIMPLE about that for the average person.

I received the painted 'A' pillars and they do look fine as far as the paint quality and they do have the weather strip on the top re-installed. What they DO NOT have is the POP RIVETED piece attached.

If you buy these BEWARE that you will have to drill out the pop rivets, move that piece to the new painted 'A' pillars, and the pop rivet them back on.

ONLY after you do this, can you just SIMPLY re-install the new 'A' pillars.

LEARN FROM MY EXPERIENCE!


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I'll have to take them to my local dealer to have them installed.
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1 slow 97

I am getting ready to do this myself. My painter wants $200 to sand the ones I have now and paint them gloss black. Just curious
how much and where did you get the pre painted ones from? Post up pics when you get them installed. Thanks and good luck, I knew about the rivets so yes you are right about it being misleading to think you can unbolt it and bolt the new piece right up.

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

Maybe your painter can take your 'A' pillars off and paint them without taking the pop riveted piece off. Not sure if that can be done or not.

I paid $250 for mine and was expecting the pop riveted piece to be on the 'A' pillars that I ordered. That was not the case.

I'll PM you the vendor's name.

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

Bump for the evening crew.

cthusker

Wish you lived closer and I'd be glad to do reinstall for a cold one! Some of these mods turn out to be a real PITA unless you have all the equipment required. I could not agree more the vendor should make it CLEAR what's involved with doing this mod..... Thanks for letting folks know about it!

speedraider

My Ace slick brother, what vendor did this to ya, pm me.

thattexaskid19

i was looking at getting these from that same vendor, but now im reconsidering... what exactly is a 'pop rivet'? doesnt sound like much fun the way you described it

Supersonic_ZR1

The POP

Rivet

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

I'm going to have my dealer do it on Friday, hopefully.

I'll see if I can get some photos to post up about the process.


Also NOTE, this is just the 'painted A pillars' from this vendor. I think another vendor sells A pillars that have a hydro-carbon wrap that already has the pop riveted part attached.

0PerformanceCorvettes

The back of the Apillars have a aluminum track that the weatherstripping sits in. The track has the pop rivets. If your removing your stock A pillars to have painted these annoying tracks do not need to be removed. Believe it or not when you purchase these A pillars new from GM they do not contain the metal track. We have done a bunch of A-pillars and in our listings we state that they come with or without the track.
With the track = 15-20 minute install (just swap over)
Without = PITA

We offer the A pillars in hydrocarbon or painted finishes for anybody interested. We also come across the Apillars with the tracks installed and can do our best to get you a set with them already attached. If not a rivet tool/gun is required to swap the tracks over.
Any other questions let me know.

http://www.performancecorvettes.com/...A-Pillars.html

C7 Mathis

I just did this project actually and my recommendation is to buy a used set and just have those painted (or paint the ones on the car already). When you do this you don't have to remove any of the rails or rivets. We just folded back the larger weatherstrip and removed the smaller one. Installing the newly painted pillars took about 5 minutes per side. Paint was about 200 for both and I bought the pillars for about $50 + shipping.

can post pics of gloss pillars + black halo if requested.

Good luck

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

Yes, I thought I was buying them with the tracks already on the 'A' pillars but unfortunately that was not the case.

This is why I started this thread, so others could avoid a similar fate.


Just to be clear, I did not get mine from EmpireCorvettes.

0PerformanceCorvettes

HAHAHA Thanks!!

1 slow 97

please post up the pic thanks !

soulcoaxing

NOT TRUE AT ALL!!!

A Pop Rivet is merely an older male frog making his ordinary croak. It is frightful to see this amount of disinformation!