'68 F250 Take-A-part - rusted nuts breaking loose

[stembridge]

My son and I were starting to disassemble my '68 F-250 parts truck Saturday, and many of the nuts holding the fenders and front grill are so rusted that when I hit the bolt heads with the wrench, the welded-on nuts just popped loose and spun around.

Many of them are in places where I can't get vice grips in to hold the nut still, unfortunately.

I don't mind destroying what's left of the rusted-out fenders, but I do want to save the grill (which is in great condition).

Any suggestions on how to remove those nuts? Flame wrench, maybe? I thought about using a saws-all, but can't get it in close enough, either...

es

[hardtailjohn]

Take a small grinder or even better yet, a drill with the same size bit that the bolt is, and drill the head off. We use that technique alot with aircraft rivets and I use it with stubborn bolts as well.
John H.

[Sharkdance]

Greetings stembridge,

First of all, I would suggest PB Blaster on every nut or bolt you can before you touch it. That stuff realy works.
Next, for those bolts that dont come out or break off I keep a stubby flat screwdriver handy to wedge in between the speed nut and anything else that I can.
A lot of times you cant get a pair of Vice-Grips on it but there is just enough room for a screwdriver tip to wedge against any flat part of the spinning speed nut.

This method doesnt always work so for those cases I would have to agree with hardtailjohn and say that drilling the bolt head off would be the next plan of attack.

[flyboy2610]

While disassembling my front clip I had to use the grinder many times to take the heads off of stuck bolts.

[FORDification]

I second the suggestion of PB Blaster. I'd always used WD40 until about a year or so ago, and as far as I'm concerned, there's no comparison. The PB Blaster is WAY better for this. Giving everything a good soaking at least a day or two before trying to loosen them is also highly recommended. When trying to removed a bed recently I gave all the bed bolts a quick squirt and then tried loosening them immediately. After breaking or rounding off every bolt down the left side, I got ticked off and walked away. Came back a week later to get started on the right side, and every bolt came right out....and I'm sure it was because of the good soaking they got and the time allowed for it to penetrate the rusty threads.

However, I've also run into the same problems with fender bolts giving me fits, and as I recall you can get ViceGrips on the back side of every single one, though you do have to do some major contortions to get into them.

[stembridge]

Thanks for the suggestions. The grinder sounds like a good option - I think I can get it in close enough on most of the bolts to grind them off.

Before I tackle any more, I'll baptise the rest of the bolts with PBB.

es