Ok, so I learned something important today - I'm an idiot.
I mentioned in the last post that I can't find the nut cage for the D/S door pillar. I've been looking all over for it. Turns out the cage that I thought was for the P/S is actually for the driver's side. I was putting it in the bracket backwards.
The question I should have asked myself is how would the nuts stay in place from the wrong side of the pillar.
On the progress side of things, I can move forward now with the D/S A pillar. I went to HF today with a 25% coupon and picked up a Chop Saw.
I used it to make a straight cut on the Goodmark A pillar I had. I should mention that I almost cut the wrong pillar - the one I got from Classic Parts.
I took the piece I cut from the pillar and created an extension of the A pillar.
I have not finished welding it up yet, but I think it came out okay.
I originally intended to make the extension just long enough to use the full patch panel below it. I will still need to cut the Classic Parts piece a bit, which is not a bad thing.
I always thought that I was making a mistake when I cut the parts or the cab, and that caused a gap at the right side. Several door pillars later, I finally realized that the part slants down at the right top.
The plan is now to figure out how much of this part to cut to bring it to the right size. I am going to drill the holes for the hinge bolts in the extension I welded, and use that as a guide to figure out how much to cut off.