The teardown of my '51 Pontiac has taken far longer than I expected. As usual, the car is not nearly as solid as I originally thought. The floors are completely gone and I found lots of filler in the lower rear quarter. Anyway, I have some big flathead screws that will just not come out on the front end. They are froze solid and just want to strip. I've tried torching them and getting a vice grip around the head of the screws. still won't budge. These screws are attaching the grill to the fenders. Should I just grind the heads of and try to extract and re-tap the grill later? Any suggestions? Ed
Hand held, hammer driven, impact screwdriver with some heat. So far ( as long as the head doesnt break off) I've had 100% success rate.
I like to weld a nut to it or use a die grinder to cut a new deeper slot in it to grab it then the heat from these helps as well.
If you heat up the screw and then spray some penetrating fluid on the screws, as the screws cool down they will draw in the fluid. Just don't get it so hot that it will burst into flames when sprayed. Good luck. Mark
That is very helpful but I foresee one issue, There are some tight spaces where I'll never get a solid blow on it with the hammer. Ed
Using a small brazing tip on an oxy torch;heat the screw head red hot and then immediately squirt water on it.Of course this only works if you can heat them with torching something else.If rusted to a nub then the screw must be ground or burned away. Penetrating oil makes a mess and when you finally get out the torch it just smokes out the shop
The best thing I came up with for removing old rusted screws is to use an air chisel with a 1/4" socket welded to the end of an old chisel tip with a screwdriver tip in it and a handle welded off the side... AKA old screwdriver or steel bar. When you pull the trigger it keeps the tip buried in the screw and vibrates the rust free and you just apply pressure on welded on handle in the loosening direction with you other hand and the screws will come right out after a few seconds and usually without messing up the screw head at all. It works great BUT is VERY noisy!!!! I used to take me all evening to remove and strip the guys from a model a or F-1 door but it now takes 15 minutes or so!!!
SamIyam gave a tech a long time ago on a homemade tool idea that has served me well. Because of limited space you may not be able to use it on all the grill screws but it's an invaluable tool to have in your arsenal. If you use a little valve grinding compound on the blade it grips the screw a little better. Here the link to SamIyams post- http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6015 Terry
Neat that is the same setup I fabbed up and described above....mine looks almost identical!!!!! it works GREAT
Cut the heads off, put it back together with bolts. You wont find any clutch head screws left on my chevy, they were a nightmare too.
If you can't get to it well enough to hold the washer/nut as suggested above, I've found that you can "blob a knob" with a welder and then grab that with vise grips. This also works if the screw/bolt is broken off below the surface. The intense heat is usually enough to loosen whatever happens to be holding it. Don
Heat the bolt red hot and apply parafin wax they use in canning and candle making. It is at the grocery store and is a block of wax in a small box. Cut off a chunk and heat the bolt red hot, then just touch the wax around the bolt head and it will immediately go down into the threads. Taake a hex shaft screwdriver and attach a vise grips and back the screw out . It works for me. Welding a washer then a nut is the last resort.
The Jalopy Journal
