I am in the possess of replacing the body bushings on my 66 convertible. Four of the bushing bolts twisted off leaving part of the bolt in the threads. The body is raised about five inches over the frame. Any ideas in removing the mounting nuts? Thanks

Nutdriverss,You might want to try soaking the bolts with PB blaster,Its similar to WD40 but I've had much better results with it. Spray it on ,let it soak overnite,then use a new vice grip and get a good grip on them they should break loose with a little work

[This message has been edited by Ricky-G (edited 09-17-2001).]

I had the same problem with my 70 and i tried the pb blaster route as well, and before the bolts gave up the nuts inside the body broke loose and I had a real problem. What I endded up doing was drilling the bolts out bigger so I could weld a 2X3" 1/8" thick plate on the bottomwith a nut welded on the top of the plate. The new bolt screwed up into the new plate and into the hole I drilled in the floor. It seems to have worked good and is holding great. If you have any questions feel free to email me for more info. chevelless502@yahoo.com

Unfortunately, the only way to get to the nuts is to cut a hole in the floor over the nut and remove it. Then replace all your bushings and install new body bolts and patch up the floor after everything is bolted up. If there is enough of the bolt sticking out that you could get a vice grip on it, I would heat the bolt with a torch to get the rust loose and then try removing the bolt with a vice grip. If the cage nut breaks loose inside the floor then you will be cutting into the floor. Same thing happened to me during the frame off rebuild of my 66 convertible.

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Dave
70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv
72 chevelle
TC member #493
Never forget Earnhardt!

[This message has been edited by drptop70ss (edited 09-17-2001).]

Here is one more way to get your bolts out:::

I am pretty good with a drill and tap. I got a small diameter drill and drilled as close to center as I could from underneath the body, up through the broken bolt. I kept increasing diameters until I was one size below the tap drill size for the 7/16"-14 thread of the body bolt. I gently started a GOOD quality tap into the hole and abra-ca-dabra it wound the threads of the bolt right out of the nut. Keeping the drill size diameter just short of the required allowed for being slightly off center. As if that would ever happen http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif.
Give it a try on the four up front in the fire wall and you can see the results through the holes there. If you need to you can cut a hole above the bolt through the body. I did this on two before I figured out the tapping method.

Good Luck



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