The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors How to remove hinge bolt

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to remove a stuck door hinge bolt? It is the lower bolt on the lower hinge on the passenger door.

Here is everything I have tried.

1) Brute force with a socket wrench and 2 foot cheater bar.
2) Heating the bolt with a torch and applying brute force in #1 above.
3) I could get a WD-40 straw down to the bolt behind the frame post so I sprayed PB blaster on the bolt and applied brute force again.

The results have all been the same...no movement. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dale

Heating it is only going to make it swell up and get tighter, but that expansion and contraction may break whatever crud is holding it.

If it were me I'd drill the head off then drill through the bolt with the correct tap size drill and if the remnants didn't come out after that I'd run a tap through it.

They also make left handed drill bits that work well for this sort of thing. Seems that drilling out the majority of the diameter weakens the grip and the remnants will spin out on the bit. If it's not a blind hole you can use a regular drill bit.

I'm not crazy about easy-outs, they actually cause the bolt to swell up as they dig in and god help you if you break one off.

That's my two cents.

I've found that the absolute best tool for getting stuborn bolt, screws, hex, slotted, phillips or clutch head out of these old trucks is the impact drivers that Makita, DeWald and the others are selling now. I have yet to find a light fastener that they won't back out. I was convinced one day while working on a friends door hinges. None would budge with conventional wrenches and penetrating oil yet every one backed right out using his Makita impact driver. Same thing when we took the clutch head fasteners out of the door hardware.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

You wouldn't happen to have the model number on the Makita handy?

I have the Dewalt screw gun / impact wrench. From experience it can and will snap 1/4 bolts. I suppose if you are very light on the trigger it may work but have found throttling back a pneumatic impact works much better. Throttle to the point you get a "whack" about every half second or slower if you can get there. Kroil seems to work best as penetrating oil.

Dan Bentler

Sure Brad, this is the kit that I bought. http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 These lithium Ion batteries last forever. I've had them all summer and haven't had to charge them yet beyond the first time.
All you have to do is use this once to disassemble a Stovebolt and you will never be with out on. Especially with as much parting out as you do.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I was surprised at how well my cordless Craftsman drill with a torque adjustment removed the stuck bolts on my 52. I was sure that I would end up drilling out several bolts but the impact action of the drill backed out every one that I have used it on.

Hey Brad, did you get an impact driver yet, or is it on your Christmas wish list? If so let us know if you had the same results that we did.
I was laying on my back under the '54 last night trying to get the 1/4" screws out of the flywheel covers and I just couldn't get enough pressure on the screwdriver. I got out the Makita impact driver with a nice wide blade and one hit on each screw and out they came. A few months ago I helped out that same friend that I mentioned earlier get the bed off and apart on his '50, 3104. Stepping to the front one more time was that impact driver. A little soak down with my special formula and we got all the bolts out lickety split. Some stubborn ones that were so badly rusted that the nuts and bolts were one just snapped of with a couple of hits from the Makita.
I say again, this type of tool is a must for anyone doing a complete tear down on an AD. And my special formula nut-buster-fluid helps a bunch too.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I've had pretty good luck with a manual IMPACT DRIVER.

Then just you wait till you've tried an electric impact driver Vern. I go one of those in the toolbox and the fact that you have to beat on the end is a problem especially when it's on a sheet metal or thin piece.
The electrics put ALL the hammer force in the radial direction where most of the force on the manual one is in the longitudinal direction. And you gotta have room to swing the hammer with the manual one, where the electric slipped right up in between the pan and exhaust pipe in the situation that I described earlier. I’m retired and at my age it’s hard to convince me that I need more tools, but this tool was well worth the money and has saved me a ton of headaches over the summer.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks for the info Denny I have added it to my Christmas wish list! Now if Santa can just figure out a way to get that 1/2-ton Canopy Express I have always wanted down the chimney.

Man I've seen several lately, but they were all REALLY bad, not much left on them that was salvageable. I doubt if anyone would even attempt a restoration of a stripped down rusted out hulk. I think you would be better off attempting to find a panel and modify it.

DG