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  #11  
Old 12-21-2013, 06:53 PM
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Looking good Lance.

Keep us updated & share your great "how to" photos.
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Old 12-23-2013, 07:26 AM
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So Plan A to remove the broken bolt was a bust. I raised the body about 5 inches above the frame but it is still pretty tight to get in the area. Frame on the bottom side, covered by the fender hanging down on the outside, and the gas tank on the inside. Can only really get to one side of the bolt through the rear tire area.

I cleaned the bolt the best I could with a wire wheel and tried to get a nut on it. The threads are completely gone and of the nuts I had on hand, one wouldn't get started and the other slid all the way up to the cage nut. I was able to get the smaller one half way force threaded onto the bolt and attempted to weld it to the bolt. This is where I ran into trouble, I could not get the ground clamp anywhere on the body where the ground would conduct to the bolt. I ended up just holding the ground clamp up against the nut on the back side while trying to attempt to weld them together from the front. After a couple of attempts I thought I had them bonded...but just a little bit of pressure on the wrench broke the nut free again.

With the nut on the bolt, just a very little tip of the bolt is sticking through and there isn't enough room above the nut to stitch a weld there either. And with the ground clamp just up against the nut, the nut gets red hot very fast and starts burning but it doesn't appear as if the penetration is getting to the bolt at all. I'm assuming this is either because of the ground situation, corrosion on the bolt or just my lack of welding skill. I gave up for the night...

The only thought I had to try before going with the "cut the bolt off and drill it out method" is to make a small piece of rectangular shaped 3/16s steel and drill a hole in it just large enough to fit over the bolt. This way I could slide it up over the bolt and have a larger area of bolt to weld to the piece of steel. I could then either try to turn the steel or slide a larger nut over the bolt and weld it to the steel plate and then turn them both with a wrench. The idea of the steel is it's thinner which will give me more of the broken bolt below it to get a better weld on. Does anyone think that is worth a shot?

If that doesn't work, then I'll have to pull the rear bumper cover and possibly the front bumper cover, radiator hoses, brake and master clutch cylinder assemblies and the engine wire harness and go ahead and lift the body up off of the frame to get better access to the area to start the drilling out process.

Aren't cars fun...
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  #13  
Old 12-23-2013, 10:14 AM
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Just finished shopping...

4 frame repair washers ordered from Kirban
8 body bolts ordered from Fastenal
2 Eastwood Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle
3 Rust Encapsulator Black 15 oz.aerosol
3 Extreme Chassis Black Satin 14 Ounce Aerosol

With any luck at all I'll have all of that at home before next weekend.

Now all I gotta do is get that damn bolt out...
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  #14  
Old 12-23-2013, 10:55 AM
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This doesn't sound like a job ... it sounds lika an adventure!



You're making your baby a better car, so keep at Lance!

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Old 12-23-2013, 11:04 AM
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There is a reason why I put this job off for so many years.

My worst fear about it didn't materialize...pretty happy that I don't have to pull the interior to cut holes in the body to get to the back side of the cage nuts on positions 2-4.

And it looks like most of my frame holes might be okay. Not Great...but okay. If I end up pulling the bumper covers, I'll probably go ahead and fix them right...but if I can get that bolt out without pulling the covers, I'll probably just make them due as is.

Pulling the body might make it much easier to home grow some chassis stiffeners at the same time though.
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Old 12-24-2013, 02:59 PM
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Plan B




Titan Stud Extractor... $19.50
WD 40 Rust Penetrant... $6.99



10 minutes later...after a little heat, a little penetrant, a little bit of torque, a little more heat...then some more spray...then one more time with the extractor and BOOM!!!




Lance wins!!!


I then removed all of the factory rubber bushings and slid the body portions of the Poly Graphite bushings between the frame and body and set the body down on them, then set the weight of the body and frame on the wheels...and checked the tightness of all of the bushings. They all fit real well...only the #3 bushing on each side is a bit loose. Looks like one washer from the old bushings should be just about right to snug it up tight with all of the rest of them.

The passenger side is sitting at almost exactly the same height as it was above the frame with the factory bushings and the driver side is up about .015" from before. I think I'm gonna call it good. The passenger #1 bushing was a bit loose then I discovered that one shim was still stuck to the bottom of the factory bushing. Once it was slid into place...snug like all the rest. I'm gonna call it good.

Here is the worst of the frame holes... #6 driver (behind rear tire) with the new bushing sitting in place.





Here is the second worst...#2 passenger side (behind the front tire) with the new bushing in place.



Here is #2 Driver side...



And here is #6 passenger side



I think I'm alright with just cleaning them up and coating them to protect them from getting any worse.

All of the rest of them are almost perfect...as are all of the body locations and cage nuts. It's amazing really...check these out.







Lance is very VERY happy to have this part of the job past him. Just a little bit more cleaning up and coating, tapping out the nuts, lubing everything up and installing the rest of the new bushings and the new bolts, lining up the body and cranking everything down.

I'll probably drive it like that for a bit then if I think it's necessary I'll cut up a delrin puck for the #s 1 and 2 positions to really snug things up. I can also plan ahead on a frame repair later on if necessary as well. I think I'd like to wait until I get a mig welder before I do that though. The flux core wire welder just makes too much of a mess.

Oh yeah...the brown truck stopped by yesterday as well.




Merry Christmas to me!!!
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  #17  
Old 12-24-2013, 03:18 PM
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Wow ... you had to go hardcore, old school on it.

I had no doubt you'd win.
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  #18  
Old 12-24-2013, 04:12 PM
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Good work Lance....


Another old skool trick is to heat the busted stud or nut and just use a candle and let the wax pull into the threads... Works like a charm.


Don't ya just love old cars!! LOL
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  #19  
Old 12-24-2013, 04:19 PM
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Thanks guys. My Dad was out in the shop watching me when I broke it loose and I had to explain to him why that was about the best Christmas present I could get.

I watched a bunch of videos the other night of guys welding nuts onto studs to get them out and I know now what I was doing wrong, or what my trouble was anyway. They were all using either mig or tig welders and being real neat and tidy with the puddle once it was formed and my old flux core wire feed welder just splatters all over the place instead of letting you create a nice puddle to work with. I decided then that a mig welder is on my shopping list. It might just be how I reward myself for getting this far on this job so quickly.

Anyway, this $19.00 stud extractor is the shiznit. As you crank it tight with a ratchet (counterclockwise) it tightens down clamping onto the stud. Once it won't tighten anymore, it puts all of the force into turning it loose out of the hole. It never even slipped on the old corroded up stub of a bolt it had to grab onto.

It is now Lance approved for sure...
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  #20  
Old 01-02-2014, 08:48 AM
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So even though I was feeling less than 100% yesterday, I headed out to the shop about 1 pm and settled in to repair my #2R body bushing frame hole. I was lucky that there was still enough of the existing hole left to let me use the bushing to mark where the repair washer was going to go.





Cutting the frame parts out was a challenge. There just isn't enough room to get the proper tools in there. I used a carbide bit on a right angle die grinder first then a light duty plasma cutter that I borrowed. Both were a bit under sized to do a good job once I got into the good steel of the frame. I then decided to start whittling down on the washer to fine tune the fit. Plus this way I could bevel the edge of the washer with the grinder to get it to fit down inside the frame without falling through the hole. Here's as good as I could get it.





Time to break out the new MillerMatic 211 and get to welding. I used the gauge to determine that the washer thickness was in between 14 gauge and 1/8" thick so I set the wire speed and voltage settings halfway between those two based on the chart, clamped the ground on the frame ans tried to tack the washer in...no spark. Spent about 5 minutes chasing it down, even hit a quick bead on a piece of scrap steel which worked...finally figured out it wasn't getting a good ground. I ended up putting a C clamp on the frame close to the repair site, clamping it down tight and then clamping the welder ground on it. The tack welds went pretty good, so I started laying down a bead around the back side of the washer. That went pretty well, then as I got to the engine side...I started burning through the frame. I tried again on the fender side and after a bit started burning through as well. The welds were plenty hot and laying down nicely but I was blowing away the frame as I went along. I ended up turning the volts down just a bit and moved slower which filled the void but also built up the welds higher than I would have liked.

This was after a wire wheel and a little bit of dressing.




Had it been out in the open it wouldn't have been a big deal, hit them with a flap wheel to dress them up and call it good. Bit of a different story here though, I cleaned them up the best I could while test fitting the bushing. I finally got it where it sat pretty well and called it good. Most of the high welds are just outside the bushing and I'm sure the Poly Graphite bushing will pull down around the humps and bumps left. If I decide to go with a solid aluminum or delrin bushing I'll have to clean them up a bit better though.



I also had to clean up the underside where the welds blew through so the bottom bushing would sit flat. Thankfully I could get a die grinder up in there with a cut off wheel on it to dress them up.





I then hit all of the areas of the frame and body I could get to with a coat of Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator and after it setup two coats of Extreme Chassis Black.









This is #6R which is still in real good shape thankfully.



I left the body suspended on the lift to let the paint set up. Next time out in the shop I'll set the passenger side back down on the bushings and lift the driver side to start the repair on #6L. Hopefully it'll go a bit smoother (and I won't be nearly as hungover).
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