I've freed three of the four joints/hinges on the rusted power seat base of my 84 project using Blaster, but the fourth is being a stubborn SOB.

I have a 1000 degree heat gun and used it to heat the joint but I don't know if I'm doing it right. Do I heat cycle it to break up the rust? Heat it and persuade it with a hammer? How is this done?

Here's the trouble spot:




Thanks!

 

I would heat it, then spray it with cold water. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

 

ATF mixed with acetone. Diesel fuel. Either will penetrate down in. Heating too much can "anneal" the metal if it is hardened to prevent wear.

 

Soak it in a bucket of oil for a week.

 

I've not tried it but others have suggested melted candle wax to penetrate. Try heating the hinge with your heat gun and applying candle wax to penetrate. If you can get it to budge a little you will be able to work it out.

 

Nothing beats ATF...

 

Yes, something beats ATF. Handily.

That something is.....(get ready for it folks). I've said it many-a-time and I guess it needs to be said again:

HEAT

Heat it up...get it HOT. Don't use a hair drier...HEAT IT. Get a torch and heat the wee out of it, then work it back and forth...it'll free right up. Not in two days, not in a "week of soaking"....it'll free up RIGHT NOW!
Don't dick around w/o potions of lore and Mom passed down. Get a torch, heat thing up and get it moving. When it cools, lubricate it then, with the potion of you liking.

 

Blow torch method has it's uses. Hard to beat ATF on many things.

 

Not if it takes hours and days. That makes it quite easy to beat.

The thing is, I do this **** for a living...and I get paid salary, not hourly. So the faster I get this **** done, the sooner I get to go home*, or do other things that I'd rather be doing. Therefore, If I can avoid dicking around with Kroil, PB, WD, Liquid wrench, ATF, Candle wax, Dog ****...whatever potion is your flavor...if I can avoid wasting hours, days, or a week letting it "soak", you can bet your *** that I'm going to avoid that. I'm going to bust out the torch, give'r hell and have it loose in minutes. Other methods can work...but heat works, RIGHT NOW! Then I can finish the job and move on to other responsibilities or fun.

When I give advice on here, I want to give the BEST advice. Yeah, I know 10 different ways to get any problem handled. I could share all the slow and difficult ways to get things done, because I did 'em all back when I was an inexperienced dumbass and fought with things like rust. But why would we do that? If you have the resources (a torch, in this case) to do it the fast/easy way...right? Do it that way.

*In fact, just yesterday, I was helping my guys at work, by doing brakes on a truck. Truck had 3 calipers with frozen sliding pins. Frozen enough that neither a 3' breaker bar, nor a 1/2 impact would budge them. The thread of the pins weren't frozen...the pin was frozen in the bore of the caliper. So...I COULD have put some potion on it, waited for hours (days?) and then tried again with hopes and dreams. But I didn't. I fired up the torch, heated the pin bores up, and then zipped 'em out with the impact. Boom. Then I could finish the job and go home.


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I know heat works but I don't know if there's some type of bushing that's in there that might melt or deform with heat.

 

If you have a large adjustable wrench you can use it on that arm that's sticking up to increase your leverage while you're heating, soaking and beating. Clamp the frame down and be careful because grabbing it on the narrow edge will make the wrench have a tendency to roll off under force. Good luck.

 

That's possible, but I'd think you'd see the edges of the bushing if one were in there. I'd also think that you'd be able to move the joint if it had a bushing in it. But it might.

 

Thanks Tom. Picked up a propane torch and bottle, heated the cuss out of it, gave it a whack with a 3lb mail and now she's free.

 

BOOM.

Done. I love it. Nice work!