I never thought about it last night, but after an incredible struggle I thought it would be fun to hear your stories about the most satisfying bolt you've ever managed to remove without stripping or breaking it. Here's mine...
Last night I was working on the humble beginnings of a long restoration on a 67 T1 that is absolutely complete and straight but was left in a field in Portland, Oregon for years, presumably after the tranny bought it. I am starting to strip the body for an off the pan restoration, and last night I was removing the running boards. Incredibly, the heater channels are rust-free and solid although the pans themselves are paper-thin in places. This is good news. I got all the 10mm bolts out from the sides with my bare hands and a little PB Blaster.
Then I got a look at the 12mm nut and bolt at the end of the line (the one that attaches to the fender), and it looks like one of those nuts that holds a dock together for fifty years in the Bay. It was that really dark rust, you know the brown color that looks like it's angry with you. Not weak or ready to break, just frozen. I winked at my air compressor and went to get my air ratchet.
Those of you who've done this, you know that it's kinda hard to get at the bolt inside the fender in the first place, but you probably also know that if that sucker is stuck, it will turn the nut in back and you have to find some way to get a solid grip on both nut and bolt at once. In a nutshell, I managed to get a spanner to hold the nut up against the body whilst working on the bolt head with various devices. The air ratchet, which barely fit beneath the fender at the proper angle, didn't do a thing. In fact, it just hissed without turning. I used enough Blaster to cook a turkey with. I used the mallet and wrench trick. I used heat and holy water and Marvel Mystery Oil. It didn't turn at all.
I remembered some guy long ago telling me that if a nut and bolt rust together long enough, they become as one and you simply can't turn them. I considered just cutting the bolt off with a disc (like I should have in the first place) and was just about give in when I gave it one last tug with all my strength.
It moved like two degrees, I thought. I couldn't be sure, so I tugged again. Two more degrees. I had already been working on this one bolt for a half an hour, so I went ahead and put my back into it.
An hour later (I'm not kidding), after a couple beers and turning that bolt a few degrees at a time, it came off clean. Not broken. Not cut.
A waste of time? Sure. But I'm gonna keep that little bolt on the workbench as a reminder next time I feel like taking a shortcut. It won't be going back on the car. -MG