A quick update today. I am able to salvage the shackle pieces! The bolts are shot, but the sides are so beefy that they'll clean up and still be plenty strong enough to use. I want to provide a big shoutout to Paul65 for providing the link for shoulder bolts in this thread. Mine arrived today and I did a quick test fit and it's perfect.
I did end up wasting a bunch of time trying to grind off the end of the bolt. I was going to use a punch to drive the bolt through the shackle. Turns out, I didn't need to do that. All I needed to do was to flip it over and drive it out from the threaded end.... Oh well, live and learn.
I did some initial rust removal, too. That's how I know that the shackle parts are salvageable. The rains from the remnants of Ida arrived while I was outside working, so no painting today. Once the rains pass by, I'll finish up the rust removal, do the painting and reassemble the complete shackle assembly. I'll post pics them.
Once again, I get to stand on the shoulders of others and succeed! OBTW, in case you were looking for those shoulder bolts, here's the direct link. Thanks, Paul65!!
