During the 2024 Rally of the Heartland second to last stage, we suffered complete steering failure. The two bolts holding the steering pivot bracket failed resulting in the Monaro veering hard right despite the steering wheel being swung hard left. Unfortunately the Monaro suffered a roll which finished with the driver side A pillar kissing a gum tree.
The roll cage was not damaged but the pillar was a mess. With all our searching we did find one pillar for sale as part of a side cut shed art Monaro but at $5k we just could not go there. Looking to get a replacement one built didn’t eventuate after about 6 months so we figured nothing to loose having a go at repairing the un-repairable.
Enter Adam Michalowski with his amazing metal fabrication skills and his confidence in repairing the the Monaro Pillar. Step 1 Neil Dimech massaged the inner part of the pillar back into original alignment and cut away the destroyed outer pillar metal to provide Adam with a starting point.
Using some nice thick walled square tubing the magic began and Adam built the windscreen side of the pillar matching the curve and depth using the passenger side pillar as the template. Then the outer edge was built with another section of the square tubing all cut, curved and spliced together. The combination is stronger than the original once all the joins were welded.
Grinding back the welds and Adams pillar repair was near on perfect needing just the slightest skim before painting.
Check out the finished product, stronger than the factory and no evidence of the many hours and skill expended which is perfect.
The accident damage looked unrepairable to us and was really holding us back from getting the Monaro back onto rally stages. Huge thanks to Adam Michalowski, love your work mate.
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