Making the B Pillar removable on a 4 door.

maskale

New member
I want to make my B pillars removable, they will be able to bolt back in, the B pillar is what your front door latches to and the rear doors hinge off.

Things to consider. A full roll cage will be required as this mod will remove a main support for the factory cage. My Jeep has side air bags, the sensors and wiring will be removed so something will have to be done to delete that option (any insight on getting rid of the airbag light would be helpful). Corbeau XRS seats will be installed with harnesses so the seat belts are no longer required. The associated wiring with the seats and seatbelts will be deleted and any dash lights dealt with. I have power doors, I don't want any exposed wires, so the rears will be converted to non power. The interior trim will not be reinstalled.

1st. Remove everything in the way then tape up B pillar to protect the paint. Scribe lines even with bottom of door sill. Also scribe a vertical line as a reference so after you cut it you know how it should line back up.

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On the inside build a jig so it can be bolted back in the same spot. Make the bolt holes the same size as the bolts so there is no slop.

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On the inside scribe a line even with the top of the door sill. Also scribe some random vertical lines as reference lines. Note the 4", this dimension needs to be maintained. Its 4" from the top of the seat belt bolt hole to the bottom of the T shape where the top of the seat belt was connected. It's hard to see in picture, but at the 4" mark is a T shaped cut out where seatbelt retractor was installed.

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Here you can see the T slot easier.

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Before cutting or unbolting anything be sure you have reference lines and measurements for everything. At the top inside of the B-pillar is a bolt, near that bolt drill a hole the same size of a Phillips screw driver. You will use this hole as an aliment hole, so when test fitting it back in you can make sure you bolt back in the same spot. The factory bolt holes are oversized so you cant rely on them alone.

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maskale

New member
Now time for cutting. Make sure you have your dimensions and reference lines scribed in the paint. I recommend you actually scribe the lines so they don't get wiped off.

Also level the Jeep. I did this with a 4' level on top of the hood hinges and a 8' level across the top of rear tub, my hard top was removed. I leveled the jeep just releasing or adding air to the tires.

At top of B pillar is bolt on the outside, now on the inside there is a bracket welded. You need to cut between these two spots.

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Now cut the bottom, I used a 6" cut off wheel on a grinder. NOTE: there is foam in the B pillar, it will BURN. It smokes a lot so you will know if it catches fire. Have a water hose handy and start blasting water through the cut if it catches fire. You will have some smoke, but any excessive smoke that continues is a fire. There is a pipe that runs the full height of the pillar, but its not connected to anything below the cut line. The outside skin is a single sheet metal, the inside is double so you need to cut through both, but you don't need too cut through the pipe. On the inside front corner of your cut will also be a spot weld that welds the outside skin to the two inside skins, cut/drill it out as required. Once you think you have the bottom cut out remove the top inside bolt from the B pillar. Now pull the top of pillar out and lift up, if it doesn't come out see where you still have metal connected at the bottom.

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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I think I missed the part as to why this would be a good idea to do but, it is nice of you to document what you're doing.
 

maskale

New member
You didn't miss it.

Clean foam out of body, reach up inside both directions about 6" and clean it out.

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Cut spot weld here towards the front.

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Also beat the corner if the inside metal down and clean out in between this gap. Use a body saw to reach down inside and cut out piece of sheet metal. Its just in there not connected to anything, it was not connected to B pillar post either. Clean out foam again.

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Clean foam out of B pillar and cut pipe off flush with the inside cut line. It needs to be cut off and then welded to the plate that will be welded to the bottom of the B pillar. There are several ways of doing this, but the path I am taking I think is easier when it comes to fitting everything together and welding the pipe to the base plate that will be added.

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Take cut off pipe and cut down it like this to remove the threaded portion. The seat belt retractor was bolted here. The thread is 7/16-20.

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maskale

New member
The inside sheet metal is doubled, I used a spot welder to weld them together in 8-10 places.

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One little spark and foam is on fire. Would have been a good idea to wet the area down first.

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TrainWreck618

Caught the Bug
I’ve seen b pillar chops to line up with half doors, but not all the way down. I really don’t understand what the point is unless your chopping it all up to go full buggy mode. Interesting project for sure, curious to see what you do.


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maskale

New member
Welded in a backing plate for the lower B pillar along with the original seat belt threaded sleeve.

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Also cut the middle sheet metal piece down some more, it made it easier to get the patch piece in.

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The factory sill has a little ledge, I spent hours trying to perfect it on my patch piece. but my SwagOffroad press brake was at its limits trying to break that close together using the flat top trying to get matching angles.

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I drilled here so I could reach in and coat the inside with frame coating once its welded up.

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Since I couldn't get the ledge right I'm just putting flat plate 3/16" thick, which will be much easier in the end. The squares welded on the bottom are 3/8" thick, they will be where I drill through and then thread them so the pillar can be bolted back on.

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maskale

New member
I’ve seen b pillar chops to line up with half doors, but not all the way down. I really don’t understand what the point is unless your chopping it all up to go full buggy mode. Interesting project for sure, curious to see what you do.


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It may end up being a train wreck. I called about 50 junk yards trying to find a scrap body they would let me cut the B pillar out so I could see how it was constructed. They wanted $300. Im just winging it here.
 

maskale

New member
Plate welded in.

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I bent some plate to make an angle and cut to match the inside shape.

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Bottom part pretty much finished. Just have to drill and tap when I get the top piece in.

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Ddays

Hooked
:thinking: Is this gonna be a trail only rig? If not you've opened up a can of worms for liability issues.
 

maskale

New member
Got a new pipe, it should get better from here on out.

Fitting the pillar takes quite a bit of test fitting. You will end up with something like this.

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The plates that will get welded on are two pieces. The pillar has a pipe running down the middle that needs to be welded to the base for strength. Trying to line that pipe up and get everything fitted without using a two step process is difficult. Below are the plates, one is flat one is bent. The notches are where the pipe will be welded, they don't look like they line up but that's how it works out due to a bend in the pipe.

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So now the flat plate is tacked to the pillar, the piece of plate was broke to match the contour of the outside of the pipe. Then reach in and weld it.

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Fit the pillar back on the jeep and then tack the angle piece of metal, then weld it to the other half of the pipe. The fill both holes and weld everything out.

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All most finished here. Just have to install sleeves to bolt though and then drill and tap the base on the jeep. I'm going to bed line it again so minor weld imperceptions will disappear.

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Brute

Hooked
I think I missed the part as to why this would be a good idea to do but, it is nice of you to document what you're doing.

I’ve seen b pillar chops to line up with half doors, but not all the way down. I really don’t understand what the point is unless your chopping it all up to go full buggy mode. Interesting project for sure, curious to see what you do.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

It may end up being a train wreck. I called about 50 junk yards trying to find a scrap body they would let me cut the B pillar out so I could see how it was constructed. They wanted $300. Im just winging it here.

I gone over this a couple times...why do you want or need a removeable B pillar?
 

maskale

New member
I gone over this a couple times...why do you want or need a removeable B pillar?

simply because I want too. no doors or factory B pillar.

It is primarily an off-road jeep. While it still is road legal, I gets very few road miles.
 

Speedy_RCW

Hooked
To each their own. Pretty interesting project. Personally I would think a huge door opening is gonna look......odd. Keep us posted on how it turns out. I’m intrigued.


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wjtstudios

Hooked
You do have amazing skills. I’ve never seen a chop go this far on a Jk, but I’m interested in seeing where it goes. The half b plillar chops in the JKs looks sweet, so I think this could have potential for a really cool trail rig.

I’m assuming your adding the lost frame strength with the full cage?


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