Body Mount Bolts Removal - With Pictures

45735 Views 47 Replies 27 Participants Last post by cozmacozmy, Jul 3, 2016

Greg

Discussion Starter · Oct 23, 2009

I removed the body mount bolts on my '68 today.
Every one of them came out with no difficulty, and with no broken cage nuts.
Here's how I did it...

About a week or so ago, I drilled a small hole through the sheet metal of the car above where each body mount and cage nut is located...

I then soaked the cage nut with PB Blaster by putting the extension tube of the nozzle through the holes that I drilled...

I did this a total of three times over the course of a week.

I then applied a socket wrench to the bolts, and every one of them came out with no difficulty.

When you're done with the job, you can just put a dab of some sort of metal putty over the little holes you drilled to seal them.

The body mount bolt near the firewall goes through a regular nut, not a cage nut, and it's easily accessible for soaking with PB Blaster.
When you're removing that particular mount, there's just enough room to put a 1 inch wrench on the nut to hold it.
If you angle the wrench just right, you can get a good grip on the nut so you can loosen the bolt underneath...

I hope this helps some folks out.

Regards,
-Greg

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3

1 - 20 of 48 Posts

crockett70SS

· #2 · Oct 23, 2009

I was just about to remove my body mount bolts. I have sprayed them with PB and let them soak. Didn't think about drilling a hole and soaking from the top...thanks for the tip.

Schurkey

· #3 · Oct 23, 2009

When your bolts look like this...don't count on the penetrant to help.

'Course, it couldn't hurt, either.

http://www.chevelles.com/techref/body_bushings.html

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Greg

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 23, 2009

Schurkey said:
When your bolts look like this...don't count on the penetrant to help.

Damn Schurkey!
What part of the country is your Chevelle from?

Regards,
-Greg

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4

Schurkey

· #5 · Oct 23, 2009

Greg said:
Damn Schurkey!
What part of the country is your Chevelle from?

Upper Midwest. Salty roads in winter.

At least that's where I'm from--I'm bought the car used 'n' abused--I made the salesman drive it home 'cause I wouldn't take the risk of having the front end fall apart.

I'm fairly sure it's a "Military base hobby-shop" special. It could have come in from anywhere and then been sold when the guy transferred out.

Rust everywhere.

But don't get the wrong impression--body mount bolts like this aren't uncommon.

JWagner

· #6 · Oct 23, 2009

That rusted bolt is similar to one I found when changing out my steering gear. It was down to an eighth of an inch diameter.

Bryan59EC

· #7 · Oct 23, 2009

Greg said:
I removed the body mount bolts on my '68 today.
Every one of them came out with no difficulty, and with no broken cage nuts.
-Greg

You are too damn lucky
My car came from Idaho (the 66) and 9 of 12 broke the cage or the bolt.
(cages in all 12 spots)

my 59 (a texas car) 8 of 10 broke

all of these positions required more cutting than I reall wanted to do.

FlameOut

· #8 · Oct 24, 2009

Schurkey said:
When your bolts look like this...don't count on the penetrant to help.

'Course, it couldn't hurt, either.

http://www.chevelles.com/techref/body_bushings.html

A few of mine looked like that. Four of mine came out easy, but I also spun a couple cage nuts and snapped a couple bolts

Shane 69 Hugger

· #9 · Oct 24, 2009

what body mounts did you use?

I have seen the plain rubber ones fairly cheap...is that what everyone uses?

Whats a good procedure when one breaks?

Pauly

· #10 · Oct 24, 2009

Schurkey said:
When your bolts look like this...don't count on the penetrant to help.

'Course, it couldn't hurt, either.

http://www.chevelles.com/techref/body_bushings.html

this is pretty much the norm here in the north east. i think everyone of mine looked like this

Rmchevelle

· #11 · Oct 24, 2009

Greg, Any pics of your bolts after they came out?

cv67

· #12 · Oct 24, 2009

Schurkey said:
Upper Midwest. Salty roads in winter.

At least that's where I'm from--I'm bought the car used 'n' abused--I made the salesman drive it home 'cause I wouldn't take the risk of having the front end fall apart.

I'm fairly sure it's a "Military base hobby-shop" special. It could have come in from anywhere and then been sold when the guy transferred out.

Rust everywhere.

But don't get the wrong impression--body mount bolts like this aren't uncommon.

Found one that looked like that, bottom of firewall. Thank God there was some thread hanging down. Doused it with WD the night before, heated that sucker up and ever so gently backed it out with some vise grips.

Wound up going with rubber mounts which looking back wasnt the first choice but in the long run probably the best. wanted some isolation from teh rest of it being as all the rest of the car had poly bushings, stiff susp, mounts and a ratty motor.

Keith Tedford

· #13 · Oct 24, 2009

Just a little side note. If you have a rusty car, check the steering box bolts. The exposed parts can look fine yet be rusted off to nothing inside the frame. I parted out a Chevelle like this one time. Cheap insurance to pull them and check.

Greg

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 24, 2009

I'm sure it helped to soak my cage nuts down with PB Blaster over the course of a week.

But granted, having a car from New Mexico definitely has its benefits.

Here's a picture of one of the body mount bolts I removed.
All of them looked similar to this.

Regards,
-Greg

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Schurkey

· #15 · Oct 24, 2009

fishhead said:
what body mounts did you use?

I have seen the plain rubber ones fairly cheap...is that what everyone uses?

Whats a good procedure when one breaks?

Schurkey said:
http://www.chevelles.com/techref/body_bushings.html

All in there.

Greg

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 24, 2009

fishhead said:
what body mounts did you use?

I'll be using rubber body mounts.

I want my car to handle good when I'm done with it, but I also want it to have a decent ride.
I've read several posts out here from guys who said their cars had a hard ride after replacing the body mount bushings with polyurethane.

I even read one post from a guy who said his ride was so harsh that he replaced his new polyurethane bushings with rubber bushings.

Regards,
-Greg

bochnak

· #17 · Oct 24, 2009

How did you locate where to drill?

I plan on doing mine this winter. Car is from Nevada.

Greg

Discussion Starter · #18 · Mar 9, 2010

bochnak said:
How did you locate where to drill?

Sorry for the delay in answering this, I didn't see it until just now.

For the ones in the rear of the car, you can just triangulate their location using a tape measure...measure from the bottom in relation to the body, then from the top. You'll get the hole close enough to be able to stick a nozzle in there and soak them down.

For the ones accessed from the interior of the car (the ones I'm drilling in the pictures), they're directly beneath that ridge in the floorpan, right in the middle of it.
I measured in from the side of the body and then measured the width of the ridge, and drilled right in the center of it.

Regards,
-Greg

knsmodels

· #19 · Mar 10, 2010

Thanks for reviving this old thread Greg....I am in the process of doing this and was wondering how to go abouts it.....Thanks....Paul

rubadub

· #20 · Mar 10, 2010

The plumb bob trick is in this thread. http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203017&highlight=plumb+bob

Rob

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