Well, I spent the afternoon battling my driver side mounts. I started at the back by peering in the corner from the inside with a mirror and light. I vaccuumed up all of the sand and garbage in there and soaked the bolt and nut with PB Blaster for a few weeks. I went under it today after pulling the rear wheel. The bolt AND cage nut immediately spun. There is no way to grab it so I took a utility knife and cut away the remnants of the old bushing from underneath. I then ground the bolt head off with my Makita grinder and pulled the bolt out through the top.
I started on the one in front of the rear wheel well and pulled the access plate. About 3lbs. of sand poured out, not a good sign. After vaccuuming out all the sand, I noticed that the bolt head had rusted to a small acorn. There is no way to attach any tool to it. I ground out the welds on the boxed end of the frame and pulled the plate to expose the other end. I have no idea what I am going to do with that one. I sprayed the front one with PB Blaster, which actually looks like it may come out. The second one in looks way rusty also. I'm going to pull the kick panel and see what there is to see.I have no idea how I am going to get that one out if its rusted.:(
So, those that have done this, what do you do at this point?


P.S., one good thing happened, I think I may have found a short I have been tracking for over a year in the door switch behind that access panel.


[Modified by Fastguy, 5:54 PM 1/20/2003]

 

Man...I have been thinking of doing this on my '72. Maybe I will leave them alone....

Mike :auto:

 

Man ive been there i feel your pain mine were soo bad,i ended up taking the body off anyway.

 

I would have left them, but they are completely gone and the body sagged onto the frame. I went to install my new rear bumper and it wouldn't fit because it hit the frame before it would line up.:(

 

It looks like you are on the right track you have to be inventive to get them out. I pounded my up through not worring about hurting the nut holder. I don't plan on doing it again, so next time it will be someone else problem. Good luck
Bob

 

Two posts going at the same time - go check out my response here:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=474776

 

Just did this on my '71 yesterday.

As for the mounts, #4 left and right was the most work. Both nuts spun on top, and they are 4 sided, so a socket won't hold them. I managed to get one out by holding the nut with an adjustable wrench. The other side was hopeless so I ground the head off the bolt and it came right out. Should have done the same thing with the first one. Would have saved me an hour, easily.

Surprisingly all the other bolts came right out. Just loosened with a ratchet and then I could turn them out by hand. Texas cars rock! :cool:

I then jacked the body up about 4" until I could fish the solid aluminum mounts out. I replaced them with 73-up rubber mounts. Hit a snag on #3, both sides. Turned out the birdcage is two layers of metal, and they were offset 1/8". Prevented the new mounts from going in. Had to dremel the birdcage out until the mounts fit.

Pretty scary sticking your hands between frame and body, considering the body with full interior must weigh over 1000 lbs. We used 3 jacks + jackstands, but still....

BTW, thanks Chris & Nick for helping! :)

 

Hey Zwede,
I've already decided to go with the rubber mounts in my 70.
I'm curious - any issues (besides the misaligned rocker channel)
that you considered or were concerned with before/after the change-over ?

If you can scrounge up enough guts to take a wood chisel and remove the
fiberglass panel in front of the rear wheel (the panel with the access plate) -
then your life will be SO much easier. Mine popped off with relative ease.

 

Nope, besides the 2 rusted bolts and the misaligned metal it was very easy. I already lowered the body back down and tightened all the mounts.