SargeW
Site Team
We have a small odd shaped window between the "A" pillar and the entry door. The rig came with a fabric "A" pillar cover with the snaps around the edge to cover the window. It worked and looked good enough, but the DW always had trouble unsnapping and resnapping them. One of the snaps had already pulled through the fabric from the constant use.
While visiting Red Bay a few months ago, I decided to upgrade to the "A" pillar pillow" I had heard about. I was purchased from the service center office for $45 and was ready within about 3-4 days. It is well made and fits the "A" pillar window perfectly.
I soon learned though that the pillow fits inside the window opening perfectly, but not big enough to wedge inside the opening to hold it firmly in place. Closing the front door usually made it fall out. I didn't want to try to use bungee's or Velcro, as it wouldn't stick long in the heat of summer. So I came up with a retention system to hold the pillow in place.
The holding bars are made of 1/2" wide by 1/4" thick aluminum bar stock. The bottom piece is 9" long, and the top piece 6" long. I sanded the edges of the bar stock smooth after cutting, and painted them with a rattle can of paint picked up at HD (as were all of the supplies).
Also purchased were #10 hinged screw covers to not only cover the screws of the new holding bars, but I removed all of the existing snaps and replaced them with screw covers as well.
A note, the screws on the inside closest to the door are about 2" long, and are screwed right into the frame. I extracted the screws and pulled off the snap part and reinserted the screws with the screw covers on them.
When attaching the holding bars, I also picked up a few nylon spacers to hold the bars off of the window frame about a 1/4". So the mounting sequence is the nylon spacer, then the holding bar, and on top a screw cover with a 1" #10 screw to hold it all in place. The nylon spacers were painted at the same time as the bars.
So when we need to store the pillow for travel, the bars rotate down along the frame out of the way of the window.
The whole mod costs less than $20, and took about 2 hours. Everything was purchased at HD.
Another problem solved!
OK, I don't know why the pics posted sideways! I was standing up when I took them!
While visiting Red Bay a few months ago, I decided to upgrade to the "A" pillar pillow" I had heard about. I was purchased from the service center office for $45 and was ready within about 3-4 days. It is well made and fits the "A" pillar window perfectly.
I soon learned though that the pillow fits inside the window opening perfectly, but not big enough to wedge inside the opening to hold it firmly in place. Closing the front door usually made it fall out. I didn't want to try to use bungee's or Velcro, as it wouldn't stick long in the heat of summer. So I came up with a retention system to hold the pillow in place.
The holding bars are made of 1/2" wide by 1/4" thick aluminum bar stock. The bottom piece is 9" long, and the top piece 6" long. I sanded the edges of the bar stock smooth after cutting, and painted them with a rattle can of paint picked up at HD (as were all of the supplies).
Also purchased were #10 hinged screw covers to not only cover the screws of the new holding bars, but I removed all of the existing snaps and replaced them with screw covers as well.
A note, the screws on the inside closest to the door are about 2" long, and are screwed right into the frame. I extracted the screws and pulled off the snap part and reinserted the screws with the screw covers on them.
When attaching the holding bars, I also picked up a few nylon spacers to hold the bars off of the window frame about a 1/4". So the mounting sequence is the nylon spacer, then the holding bar, and on top a screw cover with a 1" #10 screw to hold it all in place. The nylon spacers were painted at the same time as the bars.
So when we need to store the pillow for travel, the bars rotate down along the frame out of the way of the window.
The whole mod costs less than $20, and took about 2 hours. Everything was purchased at HD.
Another problem solved!
OK, I don't know why the pics posted sideways! I was standing up when I took them!
