71 Cutlass

Trying to deduce the best way to remove the battery tray which has some rust issues; however, the bolts holding the tray on are so "covered" in rust ALL OVER, no ratchet fitting will work and the angle is too difficult to allow for vice grips or channel locks. The bolts appear as though they have been taken from the corroded Titanic and placed on my battery tray...they look THAT bad. How to remove them?? An Easy Out perhaps, or other method?

sx455raidercelticfan

i had the same problem on my 71 cutlass, we had 2 cut the tray out and the bolts ended up breaking they just kept turing and turning, good luck sorry 2 hear it

joe_padavano

Not an uncommon problem. Bite the bullet and grind or drill them out. You may be able to save the threaded nuts on the backside, but don't count on it. You'll either need to use a separate nut or weld new nuts onto the core support.

66400

Lots of times I take a smaller size (12 mm) metric scoket and tap it on the bolt head with a hammer. It wedges on and allows you to turn the bolt out. Don't forget to spray on lots of liquid wrench on the bolt threads.

Henry

ddx77

Not that this is going to help any but, GREAT LOOKING CUTLASS!

Lady72nRob71

Try to chisel away the rust ont he sides of the bolt head, then pound the socket onto it. If it is rounded, pound on the smaller sized socket as mentioned already.

rocketraider

Air grinder and a good zizz wheel to go on it. Cut the bolt head off to where you can lift out the old tray, then juice up the remaining bolt and try a reverse drill bit to bite into it and back it out. Sometimes a regular drill bit will set up enough vibration to break the corrosion bond and will spin the bolt out thru the bottom of the support.

Plenty of never-seize on reinstallation!

Lady72nRob71

A zizz wheel??

Bluevista

two words...fire wrench.

Olds64

Lots of liquid wrench / PB blaster! Don't use an EZ out. They always break.

stan 65 cutlass

wow, i took mine out in the winter when i painted underhood, all the bolts came out and were reused. i did find a bit of rust on the end of the innerfender. sounds like it coulda been worse musta used never seize in 65

joe_padavano

Three words: PLASTIC inner fenders...

lshlsh2

Had to cut and drill mine. major headache. replaced with stainless bolts.
Larry

Blk71SX

replaced mine about 2 months ago. I tried EVERYTHING!! 39 years living under a battery there was no way those 2 bolts were going to unscrew. enter the 4" grinder. DONE!!

rocketraider

Zizz wheel is a colloquialism for a small grinding/cutoff wheel here. One that is suitable for use on a small air die grinder.

I've also heard it used to describe some exceptionally "talented" women, but we won't go there.

Yellowstatue

What ever socket you use- use a six point!!!

Olds64

Or you might consider getting the sockets from Sears with "teeth" that bite into the rusted bolt. I've never used them but they seem like a good idea.

Blk71SX

I tried those but there just wasn't enough of the bolt head left to get a bite. sometimes things don't go as well as they show on tv

Olds64

What, but Billy Mays advertised it! I thought everything you saw on TV was true!

67442nut

Ditto.
Heat works when nothig else does plus you'll save the threads on the welded nut.

oldsonharmont

Try some Naval Jelly rust remover to get the loose stuff off, then grab what's left of it with vise-grips and try a socket on the nut below the core support. I did this job too, but mine wasn't that far gone.

joe_padavano

And yet, you'll STILL light the plastic inner fenders on fire...

oregontopcat

I ground the heads off, removed the battery box, removed the spacers then soaked with penetrating oil. After setting a while I was able to go from underneath with a pair of vise grips, screwed the bolts out the bottom. Might try this.

greenslade

if you don't have a "wiz wheel""you can drill down through the bolt head with a bit the same size as the bolt,then just knock the head off,if you have a welder you could clean up the bolt head and weld a nut onto it then try screwing it out