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Im starting my first project on a 73 vette. I have started to strip the interior and cant get the seatbelts removed. First I need to remove the cover and the bolts are rusted away where there is no head to grip. what is your thoughts on how to get this stuff removed? Im trying to avoid doing anything drastic suck as cut out the plate. I have tried an easy out, but it would not budge. see pics.
Screw Heads are gone
rust on reinforcement plate - should this be removed?
You might try soaking the bolts in a 50/50 mixture of auto trans fluid/acetone for a few days. A machinist magazine test showed this was better than the commercial products. Tapping with a small hammer while you are applying it helps too I think.
And if you can not get the bolts off after that, I would center punch them and drill them out and retap. If you do not have any threads left, just drill a hole and put a nut on the back side.
And yes, I would get all of the rust off as best you can and use a rust convertor product and then paint.
Good luck and hope this helps, these jobs are no fun.
I would gring the ends flat, soak it i acetone/ATF mixture, center punch it and drill it out to slightly smaller the OD using a sharp, good quality drill. YMMV.
You could just leave everything in place and work from underneath to weld in a small patch panel. The rust looks minor and ripping everything out for a driver doesn't seem worth it. If you are in full restoration mode, then yes, do everything above.
Of course Gm engineers would use a bolt with 1/4" shoulders and put it an places that it was sure to rust. Mine was on the retractor on the drivers side under the seat. Easy outs are about the most useless tools ever. Either they don't work, or snap off leaving you with an even bigger mess.
I ground the bolt carefully to 3/4" from the original 7/8", drove an impact socket over it and hooked up the gun. An hour later, and having soaked it for several days in advance, I got out the breaker bar and a 3' piece of pipe. Only got a little bit of a turn, but it was enough to get some more PB Blaster in there. Back to the impact gun, and it finally broke free.
If it wrings off, then you have less to drill thru, but hit dead center and step up in drill size till you get to re-tap size.
Last edited by EasyEd; Oct 14, 2014 at 01:10 PM.
Reason: correction
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