The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 49 Chev Front Emblem-ectomy

Is there a doctor in the house? All I want to do is take off my 49 Chevy Panel truck front hood emblem so I can buy a better one from "somewhere", but I can't loosen the bolts under my hood to save my life 😢

They are so rusty - I have tried and I can't get them off...

Mine came off when half of the screws snapped off. Not an issue if it's not going to be reused.
Grab the screw head with a pair of vice grips and twist them off. Or if you want to save the emblem, get an oxy-acetylene torch with a small tip and heat the screw heads to a dull red then let them cool. Typically that will allow them to come off. PB Blaster can't help much here as it can't get to the captive nuts in the emblem (well unless you dipped the whole front of the hood in it.)

Hi there. The screw heads are like a rounded dome so I don't think the vise grip will get it. Also i don't have the equipment for an acetylene setup 😢

There's a lot of bracing under the hood in that area where the back of the front hood emblem is also...

Since there are two different metals involved, a little heat applied to the nut will cause the nut to expand at a different rate than what the emblem stud does. it should come loose. One of those little cordless 1/4" hex drive impact tools work small wonders for stuff like this too. Try both.
If you don't have one of those cordless impact tools, you need to get one. You won't know how you ever lived without one.
Carl

Without a heat source or ability to grab the head with vice grips, or an impact tool that Carl suggested, You could just drill the heads off the screws. Chose a bit just a little larger than the screw diameter, which should be about 3/16" (and smaller than the head), and go to town on them. If they're clutch head screws, that even helps as you don't need to center the drill bit.
You'll know when the job is done when the head of the screw starts spinning with the bit.
Even though the heads are rounded, I was able to grab them with vice grips. It takes a couple tries to develop flat spots on the sides of the heads so the pliers stay on.

Carl, the front emblems have captive nuts on them, held on by screws thru the back, so the nuts aren't accessible for heating or application of penetrating oil. But the heat works by heating the screws. The side emblems have studs on them with accessible nuts. That might be what you were thinking of.

I can't even get to the backside of the emblem because of all of the bracing and their bolts. Those are the ones I can't get off. There's bracing with screws and screws holding other pieces of metal together under there. None of those screws won't move to get to the back of the emblem.

Right, I forgot about the braces and the reinforcing panel. The same could apply to the screws holding those on. Drilling the heads off the screws would work there, too.
You should be able to get penetrating oil on them. Even a propane torch works to heat them, but of course they aren't as pinpoint as an OA set, so the paint surrounding them (if any) would suffer.

I appreciate your help, but I do have a question: how does drilling a hole in the head of the screws make it able to take out??

What klhansen is describing is the idea of drilling the heads with a drill bit that is slightly larger than the shaft of the bolt. When the drill bit gets to the shaft of the bolt, the head will just come off because you've drill through the underside shelf of the head. Then, when the parts are on the work bench, you'll need to get the rest of the bolt out.

Before trying that though, another idea is to drill a small hole into the bolt and use a left-hand tap to dig into the bolt and unscrew it..

Let us know what eventually works for you.

Cheers, Dean

Rustoholic's suggestion brings to mind another option. Sears sells a product called Craftsman "Screwout" link which is a set of stubby bits that work like a left handed drill bit. I have a set of them and they are moderately successful, but a really rusted screw usually defeats them. That's why I typically use the "drill the head off" method.

I've broken off too many screw extractors that need a hole drilled into the screw shank. Taps are pretty brittle as well. Once a screw extractor or tap is broken off in a hole, it's there for good in my experience.

Thanks guys - I appreciate your help.

The heat and torch technique : I should probably take this to a body shop ??

You might pick up one of those small pinpoint butane torches. That would probably heat it up enough to loosen the screws.
Amazon link

Thank you klhansen for the link to Amazon - that is a nice touch!

No problem. Mind you, I'm not advocating you buy thru them (I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Amazon, because of their absolutely insane shipping policies, and their refusal to explain why they're so strange), but it's handy to show products you might consider purchasing, either locally or from Amazon.

If the emblem is junk why don’t you just grind out the front, go through the emblem with a die grinder? It is just sheet metal, should take 5 minutes?

I thought of that (the grinder method) but I don't have an air compressor or grinding equipment, which I assume is expensive.

How much would a body shop charge me for that kind of work?

A Harbor Freight electric 4-inch angle grinder can be had for about $10, not that I'd recommend that model for long term usage. I destroyed the bushing on one in fairly short order. But it should work long enough to grind thru the emblem. Possibly a better option would be an electric cutoff tool. 3" size should work well. My HF cutoff tool is still operable Those go for $20 with a coupon.

Dremel tool (110 volt), $100 bucks at Home Depot, get one with the collet/kit for grinding discs. This will come in handy during ownership, compact and versatile.

Those are great ideas, and I agree. I could saw off the emblem (from the outside), but if i do - how do I get out the main body of the screws that are still threaded through the holes?

Also, I can't get the screws, nuts, and bolts off of any of the metal bracing behind the emblem....

Inside of emblem looks like this, honestly there is not much metal to remove here? Once you get the emblem off you can cut the screws off and they will fall out. Paying someone to do this or drilling these out seems the more costly/difficult choice, to me.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/15591819663/in/album-72157631868452754/

Hi Brad, thanks for the pic/link. I mis spoke earlier. I meant behind the emblem meaning the inside of the hood. That's where the excessive bolts and bracing plates are - not literally behind the emblem, but on the inside of the hood - where the emblem is on the other / outside 😇

If you can reach behind the supports (and the rod braces to the sides are easily accessible) to the nuts, put a wrench on them and TIGHTEN them till they break. Shouldn't take much torque. You MIGHT have to back up the screw with a clutch head driver to keep them from turning. That's often the easiest way to remove stubborn nuts and bolts.

Hello Kevin, you have a 51 Chev ( pkup?) and I have a 49 Chevy Panel - so we are not that far off. When I raise my hood, twisting backwards while looking up - I can see the four screws (philip-heads) that hold the emblem on. The problem is: the screws are not loosening at all and they are tilted on an angle. The bracing screws and metal plate screw also won't budge. Please go out and look under your hood and maybe you will see what I am trying to describe. If I could just somehow loosen any or all of the screws- then everthing could come off and I could get to the emlems screws and remove it. They won't budge...

Tom

I can't look under my hood and give you a picture of it, because I've already removed all that stuff from my hood (and it's currently buried under a few inches of snow.) I did have to apply a bit of heat to get some of the fasteners loosened.

But you should be able to get to the nuts with a wrench. I did when I removed that hood latch plate.

I would definitely use the grinder or cutoff wheel to get the emblem off. Since you aren't planning on using it, it doesn't matter if you destroy it in the process. I assume you aren't planning on repainting which would likely be required if you use a torch.

Yes, I really want to replace it with a new one or a good used front hood emblem.

Sorry, I seem to have led you astray about getting the latch panel disconnected from the hood. The nuts are captive type, so you can't put a wrench on them.

I dug out the latch panel from my hood and snapped a few of photos. The rod brace from the edge of the hood to the latch panel does have a nut and bolt securing it at both ends, so you could twist those of, but to get the latch panel out, you'll need to either use heat or drill out the bolts. That being said, I still think you could use a cutoff wheel to remove the emblem.

The first pic shows the whole panel as if you were looking from the front of the hood. The second shows the top side with the captive nuts, and the third shows the bottom side which mates above the flanges on the hood itself. The hole toward the center of the panel in the last two photos is where the rod brace bolts to it. You can also see in the latter photos the evidence of heating up the bolts to get them loose from the rust.

Hope that helps.

That's the problem - I can not seem to be able to "twist" any of the nuts, bolts, or screws off. Very nice pictures tho.

Have you tried drilling the heads off? That usually works pretty well for me. They should all be fairly well accessible.

They are accessible, but I have never drilled off the heads of screws before and tried to remove them from metal. Basically, I don't know how to do it.

Well, you need to have a good 3/8 Drill and a set of drill bits, you can get them at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, Walmart, Ace , etc..... Having read this entire post / posts I'm left with the impression that you have very little experience using hand tools. That's ok, everyone has to start somewhere. Here's a link to a YouTube Video that sort of shows the method used, except use a large enough drill bit to allow you to "drill the head off". On this video you only need to look at 1:31 to 1:43 because the rest of it does not apply . I just wanted you to get an idea of what's been discussed regarding "drilling out the head" to separate it from the rest of the screw. If you wish, you can PM me and I will give you my contact information and we can "discuss it".

Hi, just saw the video. Thank you for that. After he drilled it, what is the name of that star-shaped bit that he was hammering on?

Plus, his screws turned easily and didn't appear rusty. That's my problem - my screws don't turn easiy, or at all, cause they are all rusty and stuck.

Skip the part about the star shaped bit. I was attempting to "show you" how to drill out the head of the fastener so as to "remove" the head. The emblem on your truck may very well be different in how it is held on versus my 1954. If the hood emblem is held on by nuts threaded over studs and you don't want to keep the emblem, use vice grips. and grip the nut, then twist it until it breaks off. I would imagine that you should also be able to get a 3/8 socket or whatever size it is onto the nut and twist it off that way. Now if none of this "works for you", find a good mechanic shop and ask them to remove it for you. Going to a Body Shop would get the job done, but its gonna a cost ya!

The bracing and other metal "plates/brackets" on the inside of the hood latch area are in the way of me getting to the back of the emblem. I guess all of those screws and such could be drilled out too as well - but if they are all too rusty to turn, then what's the point...? They look like counter-sunk flat tip and phillip- flat headed screws

If I could get them off, I could take off the bracing and have better access to the back of the emblem.