The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Broken windshield frame screws

My windshield frame is in decent shape and I was lucky to have all the screws come loose after some coaxing...all but the bottom center row.

I've snapped off two of the heads leaving them flush. How's the best way to approach removal? Drill them out and chase with a die?

Patience is your friend here.

I’ve always been successful by wetting each screw remnant liberally with penetrating oil and giving it plenty on time to soak. As best you can, find and punch the center of the screw and begin drilling with as small a drill bit as you can. Then drill repeatedly by increasing the size of the bit each time.

Most often, a screw extractor bit can be used to back out the screw remnant. If not, drill out until you can use the correct thread tap to excavate the remaining remnants of the screw from the original threads.

Of course, there innumerable YouTube videos which detail other ways and variations on the steps I outlined above.

Good luck!
Greg

Greg's method is going to be pretty hard on machine screw sizes. If acceptable (it looks lik you're going to be refinshing the frame anyway) try some heat using a really small tip on an oxy-acetylene torch. Heat the screw cherry red and let it cool off. You may be able to grab the stub with locking pliers and get it unscrewed. Or with a MIG welder, weld a nut on the stub (welding inside the nut), then use a wrench to turn the assembly out. That may be the least intrusive to the finish on the part.
If all else fails, drill them out carefully like Greg said. If you get too far out and bugger up the threads, you can install a helicoil to restore the original thread size.

Lately I have really good luck with broken bolts by welding a washer to the broken piece, then welding a nut to the washer. With this method, you can get a much better bite on the broken bolt or screw with the welder, and you can weld a bigger nut to the washer for a better grip. It helps me since I am terrible at welding through nuts, it always sticks to the nut more than the part I am after.

That's pretty small but I have had good luck with left handed drills and taps. A lot of times the left handed drill just grabs it enough to remove it.

I wouldn't try that without a few good soakings with penetrating oil, and possibly some mild heat. There's enough rust there that those stubs are securely in place, as evidenced by the fact that the head broke off.

Sometimes heating and cooling quickly helps ,right now can heat and use snow or ice from outside.

I bought some spray from NAPA that is a freeze spray with penetrating oil in it. It works quite well.

I sure wish @Pretzer46 would come back and tell us if he had any success getting those screws out.

He just posted some pics of his truck in Project Journals, but hasn't been back here to this thread.

It's a war. I've lost many battles and have no plan to retreat, but also no options as I cannot find a reman frame in stock anywhere.

I drilled a couple of the lower frame screws out to 1/8 or so to accept an extractor. Which readily snapped off in the hole leaving a hardened steel sleeve in an already seized cavity. I've had some success with diamond tip dremels to make headway in carving out this issue but it seems like the metal(s) just seem to be joining together under the heat. I've taken a break from it while soaking it in oil while I soak in more effective solutions over ice. No good news sorry!

Pics attached, it's a dang mess. I'm going to go at it for a while longer but not sure. Even the ones I've drilled and succesfully chased with a tap don't give me confidence they'll allow me to get the connecting bars to budge. I suppose the last ditch effort is to cut the connecting bar, soak in oil, and ram it 6 inches deep into the frame...which will probably not end well.

Bummer. That's the exact reason I shy away from screw extractors. Once they snap off, they're VERY difficult to get out.

It's a tedious process, but I've had success on really stubborn broken screws by drilling as close to center as possible, then drilling with successively larger bits and when the screw shell gets thin enough, using a sharpened punch to collapse and remove the screw. If the original threads get screwed up then I break out the helicoil (or go buy a set if I don't have the size).

Hope you have better luck.

Can you weld a stick or bolt to the broken one?

I don't have that skill set unfortunately. But, I don't think it would be successful on the ones I've already drilled out. And the screws that are protruding a bit are so small it would be a challenge to accurately weld just on the screw. I think they are 10-24 size. Quite small and quite rusty!

Pretzer:

As I tried to explain earlier, the screws that you are trying to extract are not the entire issue. The “parting” bars inside your frame are rusted solid to the point that extracting them is probably not possible.

I have worked on 8—10 of these frames. Yours looks better than most and is certainly worth saving.

My recommendation is to drill out the heads of the screws just deep enough to clear the inside of the outer frame. At this point, the screws are no longer holding things together. Then try to gently separate the two halves of the frame.

This typically doesn’t work. The parting bars are simply not going to give up that easy. I have had luck by cutting the two halves of the frame apart- essentially sawing thru the parting bars. Then secure the frame half in a Vice with the end of the cut bar facing up. Then take a blunt punch about the same dimension as the parting bar and start driving it down into the frame. When it gets deep enough to allow a new parting bar to be inserted, the old parting bar is entombed forever inside your frame. You simply cannot reuse the old bars.

Use care to avoid damaging the thin sheet metal frame. Chances are your frame will need some repair. Typically there will be a few holes in the inner or outer frame channel. Instead of welding, consider filling the holes with JB weld epoxy, shaping it to the proper contour before it sets up. If you must weld on the frame, it takes skill and experience to weld the thin metal without making more damage. Proceed with care, it’s a valuable part.

I think this is where I'm headed. The top connecting bar has budged about an inch so that's exciting. If I cut the bottom I can at least start peeling out this broken glass and get some safer leverage on this beast. If there is anything in life that I want to entomb, it would be this!

Update from the trenches:

The bottom four screws all were seized, broke off, and therefore were named the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I believe I have relieved the broken extractor head of its home via 30$ worth of diamond dremel bits. The rest I center punched, and slowly drilled up to a 5/32 bit and then chased with a 10-24 tap. The metal is actually pretty soft.

After a lot of soaking and gentle prying the top frame actually showed a good bit of movement. The bottom I aggressively got to open maybe a 1/16th. At this point I can't really get any leverage on the frame or any effective way to soak these pieces. So I decided to cut the bottom bar. This then allowed me to pull out the glass and even separate the frame on the top with just some tugging.

So here we are. I'm going to soak the frame ends by standing it up against a wall to submerge in wrench/kroll etc for a few days straight. Looking at the inside of the frame it is in fantastic condition so I can't give up now.

I've called all the major dealers...they all states the one business that makes these frames is behind 6-9 months. So it's not like I really have an option right now.

Good job. Perseverance pays off.

You might try a rust removal product. Maybe Evaporust would get the bar out.

I can find no action which is more rewarding, and gives me as much satisfaction than repairing the most challenging original parts on these old trucks.
I used to do a lot more of that before I found out that there were aftermarket sources for them (30 years ago), but heck, anyone can swap parts. Where's the fun in that?
I still do major surgery on AD door latches to restore worn away metal and rusted up parts since the aftermarket ones are junk. Same with door hinges.
It sounds like you are starting to enjoy your small incremental victories along the way.