Jeep painted over torx bolts
- Thread starter kehyler
- Start date
Soldering iron on the bolt.
Exactly - don’t kill the paint, but if there is thread locker, you’re going to need some heat to soften it. Focused, modest heat won’t kill the paint.
Are you certain that the hinge pins themselves are still good? Worn hinge pins would let the door sag - replacing them is far easier than this alignment process…
I had to loosen those Torx T40 hinge fasteners two years ago when I replaced the half doors with full doors on my '97 Jeep TJ Wrangler. The key is to NOT use an impact wrench which only will strip out the shallow cavity. I just used a hammer to carefully tap the Torx bit fully into the bolt and gently applied torque with a breaker bar in a slow and controlled manner. They were not installed with any Loctite thread locker and I did not have to apply any heat.
I mean, I could try to upsell my better half that I need a new Jeep.
I may be the minority here, but once the hole is stripped (OPs still looks to have a chance of successful removal), I’d be drilling a hole for an EZ-out or to pop the head off altogether. Once the door is off, you can then use vice grips or other methods to get the remaining part of the bolt out of the door. Then, replace with stainless Grade 8 bolts so any future actions on the door have a shot at being successful.
Well something looks a little fishy here in the photograph. The door hinge appears to have bubbling paint. Perhaps this door was painted before to cover up something?
Everything is fishy on this 23 year old pile of rust.
Nothing particular about this door that I know about...
Grade 8 bolts are typically zinc plated alloy steel. Most automotive fasteners these days are metric. Equivalent grade 8 class would be 10.9. Nothing real strong is available in stainless unless you move up to Aerospace grade A286 fasteners which are extremely expensive.
If you wanted to go stainless, it's maybe not the worst idea but you'll need to hunt a bit to find flat head Torx cap screws I'd think. I suppose socket head hex could work, too.
Likely any 304 from a reputable fastener supplier would be sufficient. These are just holding on relatively lightweight doors -- it's not like we're talking about a track bar bolt or caliper bracket.
Furthermore we know the doors absolutely canNOT be considered integral to body structure (unlike some unibodies) because they were intended to be absent from the factory by design.
Either way, frustrating. Sorry you're having to fight this.
Likely any 304 from a reputable fastener supplier would be sufficient. These are just holding on relatively lightweight doors -- it's not like we're talking about a track bar bolt or caliper bracket.
Furthermore we know the doors absolutely canNOT be considered integral to body structure (unlike some unibodies) because they were intended to be absent from the factory by design.
Either way, frustrating. Sorry you're having to fight this.
The tool's not the problem here. The fact that it wasn't fully engaged is the problem. Without sufficient depth of engagement, even a PB Swiss would snap.
Stainless is as likely to be worse as it is to be better. Stainless tends to gall quite badly And practically speaking, the typical chromate finish of a grade 8 is sufficient for corrosion resistance without having as much galling risk.
Just maybe you could use an electric soldering iron to keep heat on bolt and spare the paint. Would also consider extractor with long bar.
And there's a bunch of hardened paint there in the hole, making engagement difficult.
Wranglers look like they're lots of fun but wrenching on anything that is painted is probably very tedious. Maybe there's a fine line between seating the tool all the way, thus damaging the paint, vs. not seating the tool in deep enough and risk damaging the fastener.
Since you have Koken Tools try this out. You may need a different bit holder depending on your bit size. I've used it before with success for a similar issue. Use promo code (mrsubaru10) gets you 10% off.
https://kokenusa.com/products/attack-driver-set-3-8sq-dr
https://kokenusa.com/products/attack-driver-3-8sq-dr
A fastener tangent, based solely on limited personal experience:
I've mostly seen galling with stainless fasteners in stainless. Stainless in mild steel not so bad. HOWEVER coarse thread WAY better than fine thread, for fairly obvious reasons.
I once installed a cable rail that used 5/16-24 eyebolts and nuts, all stainless hardware of course. TERRIBLE!! Before you could achieve proper cable tension it'd lock up. Then you couldn't back it off, either, so you're screwed.
I installed other cable rails that used 1/4-20 and they didn't have this problem.
My 7x12" bandsaw uses a 3/8-16 bolt for the stop rod. Sometimes you wanna change out the rod for different lengths. The factory ferrous bolt seized and snapped from constantly having coolant run over it. I installed a SS bolt and it's been a fantastic little upgrade.
It usually lives like this and these chips are usually wet from coolant:
I just dug it out and tried to turn it after at least a year of not being moved and lots of cutting. It moved perfectly:
The entire machine is slowly rusting away; WSO only does so much:
Thus based upon my bandsaw experience I very much reco SS fasteners in ferrous if corrosion is a concern. Still, is it the best choice for TJ doors? I don't know.
Similar threads
- Locked