Rear Wheel Body Bolt seems welded in. Now what?

[chrismo]

Hi,
I'm getting ready to do my heater channels and floorpans, and am trying to get the body off my bug. All the bolts except one have been removed, and that one is driving me crazy. Finally I removed the fender, washed the dirt off and put a lot of light on it and it seems like it's welded to the washer below. Its the rear wheel body bolt - passener side. Have a look at this pic - Am I crazy - or is this welded in? I suspect the washer is welded down too. I tried cutting the washer with my dremel.

bodybolt_welded.jpg

I'm assuming the bolt sheered off when they were tightening it, so they just put the bolt on top, and welded t to the washer, and then the washer to the body.?

Any good way to get that off? Angle grinder underneath?

Thanks for any ideas!
Chris

[SCOTTRODS]

Use a bur in the die grinder, and cut the head and washer off..... You can deal with the left over bolt parts much easier with the body out of the way. Not much way to do this from the bottom. Here's a tool that should work......cheap.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

^^^^ my opinion too.

See if you can get some of the muck and rust out before you get too aggressive in there. You need to see what you are doing before you start doing what you plan on doing. Take your time as this detailed kind of stuff can ruin your day if you push it before you are ready or can see what is totally involved so you can guide your tools where they need to be.

Do not try to use a cold chisle as with that much rust things are thinned out enough you could do damage to the hole or more. You could use a medium aggressive cone shaped rotary file on a small grinder or drill if you don’t have the grinder. Let the file do the work, don't force it and if your first plan of action doesn't work, stop and regroup. Wear a face shield or wrap-a-round safety glasses if you are going to use a rotary file or stones.

Lee

[chrismo]

Thanks for the input.
I'm in no big rush so I'll make myself comfortable and take it slow and easy.

Thanks

[theKbStockpiler]

That bolt is so rusted that it will never spin out. Two inexpensive and must own tools for the DIY mechanic are a Turbo Torch used with mapp gas and a cheap 4" angle grinder. I bought a angle grinder on sale at Autozone for $10 and apparently money goes pretty far with a non brand name grinder. If It broke ;which it shows no signs of doing soon , I would most likely by a Harbor Freight one. A Turbo Torch is a plumbers soldering torch except it has turning veins in the nozzle and gets much hotter than one without. Look in the nozzle and see if it has veins. I bought one last year for $15. It is a step below a oxyacetylene but will get you out of most jams if you use the Heat Sink Principle. Use both tools with respect to your safety. I had a fuel tank catch on fire once and was able to put out the flame by covering it with my hand. I would go after the base of the bolt with a chisel first , heat the bolt up as much as a Turbo Torch with mapp gas will do (safely) and then smack a decent quality socket; that is smaller than the bolt on ,tighten the bolt a little and then try to loosen it. If you are lucky it will snap off. A 4" inch grinder might fit in there as well(4"cut of disc). Another more unsafe method is to buy a arbor for a drill and put a Diablo 3" cutting disc on a drill. HomeDepot sells both. They don't have a guard so keep both hands on the drill and wear safety glasses and ear plugs.

[SCOTTRODS]

That bolt is so rusted that it will never spin out. Two inexpensive and must own tools for the DIY mechanic are a Turbo Torch used with mapp gas and a cheap 4" angle grinder. I bought a angle grinder on sale at Autozone for $10 and apparently money goes pretty far with a non brand name grinder. If It broke ;which it shows no signs of doing soon , I would most likely by a Harbor Freight one. A Turbo Torch is a plumbers soldering torch except it has turning veins in the nozzle and gets much hotter than one without. Look in the nozzle and see if it has veins. I bought one last year for $15. It is a step below a oxyacetylene but will get you out of most jams if you use the Heat Sink Principle. Use both tools with respect to your safety. I had a fuel tank catch on fire once and was able to put out the flame by covering it with my hand. I would go after the base of the bolt with a chisel first , heat the bolt up as much as a Turbo Torch with mapp gas will do (safely) and then smack a decent quality socket; that is smaller than the bolt on ,tighten the bolt a little and then try to loosen it. If you are lucky it will snap off. A 4" inch grinder might fit in there as well(4"cut of disc). Another more unsafe method is to buy a arbor for a drill and put a Diablo 3" cutting disc on a drill. HomeDepot sells both. They don't have a guard so keep both hands on the drill and wear safety glasses and ear plugs.

All good info, but the bolt you're looking at is probably no bigger than a 15mm head..... Nothing bigger than 17-19 mm would even fit in the bracket. The 1/2" rotary file will take a while, but is one of the best tools I've used for this exact job. I have a set of tool cutting dies from snap on that have even smaller diameters..... The 1/4" would be my cutter of choice, but I was trying not to cost the guy a fortune in tools he may never use again. I would definitely use the larger wheels if access allowed though.

[theKbStockpiler]

Maybe you/they can borrow a sawzall? I would go with the Chisel ,heat , beat on smaller socket size first and then maul it up as a 2nd option. Getting that fixed is going to be ugly at best.

Edit: You can also drill through the center of the hex part with a size bit that is the same size or bigger than the diameter of the bolt.