Convertible sill strengthening

[cadetchris]

In the future I am going to whip off the roof of my moggy and naturally I’ll need to reinforce the sills. For this I have bought the proper sill reinforcement panels from esm and to get everything right, I need to know there exact placement.
So, does anyone have any photos, diagrams or past experiences fitting said sill reinforcement?

[Westcountryman]

Hi. You need a number of strengthening panels in addition to the sill ones.
Here is a view of the sill panel welded on top of a renewed floor. The steel I had to hand was 16 gauge so much more solid than the usual panels. Difficult to work but nothing moves!
In addition you need to add strength between the A post and the dash board area to provide some kind of triangulation and stop lateral movement when you remove the roof - These are the quadrant panels painted orange in the photos. They are flat with a 90 degree return on the curved edge.
You can see that I added another strengthening piece at the base of the A post. This was cut from box section steel. It is welded to the end of the sill reinforcement panel so that it forms a solid angle. There is also an angle piece between the A post end of the sill and the inner wheel arch.
The B post reinforcement is one of the standard pieces and stops to B post from moving about. I would suggest welding these in with the doors in place and the best panel gap you can manage. I had already taken the doors off and unfortunately the panel gap is not as good as it could be.
The door was welded over where the window glass came up but the location points for the quarter lights were left.
The roof was cut in line with the quarter lights not as the normal convertible.
Finally you need to get the car as straight as possible and sound before making any of these changes. Then add the new panels and only then cut off the roof.
I am sorry that all the pictures are in a bunch but I am having trouble getting them in line and not repeating.

[Westcountryman]

A couple more pics of the construction of the roadster.

[cadetchris]

The roof line above the window is also something that has got me thinking.
Have people taken the roof back to the bar above the window or as pictured, left an inch or two of the actual roof?