I recently purchased a 73 Cutlass S roller and ive been tinkering on it to get it ready for an engine and trans.

Last weekend I decided to tinker with the interior and clean up some of the upholstery. Well, that lead me to my question

Anyone have a suggestion on removing the torx bolts that hold the upper rear seat back in place? These bolts got the best of me and my torx bits, now the heads of the bolts are stripped out. A pure PITA!

I'm trying not to damange the seat belts, housings nor the metal base on the seat belts.

I soaked the bolts with PB Blaster over a two day period with no luck removing them (stripped them in the process). I even soaked the threads from underneath the body.

Before I attempt the cutting wheel method (cutting a wide slit in the bolt head to use a piece of flat iron for removal) I wanted to see what someone else has done in this situation. Surely I'm not the first to encounter these stubborn @?? TORX bolts.

 

This is after the fact for you, but I used a 1/2" impact wrench to get mine out. I could not break them loose with an 18" breaker bar, the bit kept twisting out of the screw.

Straight-on pressure with vibration convinced them to turn. IDK why those things get so tight in their retainers.

 

Two ideas for you. Take a cut off wheel and cut a slot in the head and take it out with a big screwdriver. Make sure you cut it clean and keep it square to the head. If you tip the cut off wheel you will make a v cut into the head instead of a slot. Slot is very important.

Weld another bolt to the top of the torx. Use the head of that bolt to loosen it. Use a welding blanket.

As a last resort. Use the cut off wheel to carefully remove the entire head. Pull the seat out. Carefully drill a 1/8 hole down the center of the bolt shaft. Now drill again slightly larger and repeat that to have a big enough hole for an easy out. Centering is very very important. Use a punch for your starter hole.

Good luck.

 

heat the threds, along with your other method might do the trick

 

I assume it is where vice grips cannot hold it...
Grinding a slot in it would be my next attempt.
OR, grind the round outside edge into a hex head and remove with socket... IF you have room... A dremel could help if not,

 

Yes, it's in tight spot and vise grips didn't work.

I even put thought to some sort of BFH method but the space doesn't allow much room to smack the bolt. Someone suggested an air hammer...may have to try that if none of the other methods work.

I'm leaning toward the slot method, welding a nut on the bolt head, and/or squaring off the head.

 

Forget unscrewing them at this point.

The good thing about Torx screws is that they will center your drill bit .

I'm afraid you'll have to carefully drill through the old screw, then use an easy-out, or failing that, use tap to clear the remains out of the threads.
It'll be slow and annoying work.

- Eric

 

could try driving a 12 piont socket down over the head,it may grip enough to remove the bolt,or use a special socket for removing rounded off bolts,sears sells those, good luck.

 

Finally got a chance to take a few photos of the torx bolts this past weekend.

A few shots of the bolts. The passenger side seat spring has some stout spring action! I had to use a small rubber mallet to keep the seat pressed inwards/backwards in order to access the bolt.

I know I could remove the covers on the seat belt mechanisms but I'd have to snap the rivets on the sides of the covers (visible in the second photo), possibly damaging the covers. Granted this isn't a glorified restoration, but I'd rather not break any parts if I can avoid doing so. It's hard enough to find parts as it is.

 

I gathered up a few tools to removed the bolts, if I can.

7" cutting discs, vice grip sockets, a nut/bolt splitter, and some lubricant.

More fun to be had...

 

Be very careful if you use the Easy-Out route. The last thing you want is a broken Easy-Out in a bolt/hole. They're made out of a super hardened zobodium kryptonite alloy meaning trying to drill out the broken piece will take forever....

I know...

 

Agreed, that would not be fun at all. If the current batch of tools fail to remove the bolts, I'll try some of the other methods mentioned, including the easy out.

Speaking of, I have an air hammer around here somewhere...my brother may have borrowed it so I need to check his garage. I'll try a few taps on the bolts to "rattle" them a bit and maybe that will loosen them up enough to turn freely.

 

Wow - those are in a BAD place to work on them!
The insides almost look hex shaped. Reconn you can hammer an allen head bit that attaches to a ratchet??

 

Yes Rob, a bad work space indeed. I thought about that, especially the type that's used on brake caliper bolts. The depth is shallow on these bolts but I think it's worth a shot too.

 

If you do the drill-out technique get a set of left-handed drill bits. I've had good luck with them getting the bolt hot and letting it back out.

 

Finally!

I successfully removed those freakin' torx bolts.

After all of the suggestion and ideas, I had to chisel a few notches in the bolt heads and use a BFH to turn the bolts a 1/4 turn using the chisel as my "bolt turner".

The driver side was the toughest due to the fact "lefty loosey" was the direction needed to remove the bolt. On top of that, the rear sail panel was hindering me from using the hammer to strike the chisel head on.

I removed the panel and got the striking force needed to tap the bolt to a loosened state and then used vise grips to twist and remove the bolt.

The passenger side was easier considering the "lefty" was not being blocked by anything. Once I got the bottom of the bolt (still had a few undamaged teeth) around the 2 o'clock position, I used a T47 bit to finally remove the bolt.

All that being said and done....there was no buildsheet.
Maybe there's one on the gas tank, time will tell.

I'm delighted I got the dang bolts and seat out...on to the next thing.

 

a few more...

Here's the passenger side being removed, the belts and bolts together, and the back of the rear seat.

Not sure what clawed the big hole in the cushion. It was like that when I bought the car.