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the body work to be done on the 8, lots of ?s

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PATR8

PATR8

Jedi Knight
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I have been slowly stripping the interior of my car in preperation to replace the mounting point of the driver side rear trailing arm. I am one stripped Torque bolt from having the interior out.

Here are the questions I have so far.

How does one remove a stripped torques bolt that resides in the rail of the seat? To small of an area to get vice grips on, not sure I can get any thing under the seat with out tearing it up to cut the head off... Ideas?

Next question, The DPO apparently rust proofed the spare tire well with some sort of oil/rustproofing that does not harden. Only sucess so far is to use a scrapper to smear it around but it does not work well in the corners. the stuff truly has the consistancy of hot bubble gum. It sticks to every thing it touchs but does not come off. Any thing out there to hardern or ideas to remove it? I tried a heat gun thinking as it warmed up it would wipe out but it just got more slimy

Big question. has anyone ever replaced a mount point before? How big of an area should I replace? As small as a area possible or should I go big? The floor boards look pretty solid.

Last question for the night, I think, What joints should I have rewelded? I will do the rear seams because it looks like a disgruntled worker welded it the first time. I think I was TRtodd telling me to do it but as I have the interior out I am not sure exactly what he was talking about

I probably should have made several post just to pad my count but thanks for the help as always. I am going to go play with my lights to see if I can get them to come up and go down by themselves
 
Any thing out there to hardern or ideas to remove it?

I have used Freeze-Off from CRC with success on freeing up bolts that PBB can't loosen. It may freeze up the goop so you could use a scraper. keep the scraper in the freezer right up until you use it.
Mike
 
I used Freeze-Off and lots of WD40 on my seat bolts. Tried to tighten and loosen in very small motions until it started to loosen up. It got pretty frustrating until it just finally gave way.

Oven-off for the spare tire well?

I did some touch-up welding on anything that looked like a weak weld from the factory, any areas with a "big" gap between welds, and fixed a very small crack in the area near where the rear suspension attaches. Make sure to check at the very back of the cockpit, right above the floor boards.

I put down sound deadening material liberally once I had stripped and painted everything and it made a big difference.

Remember - we love pictures. Hint, hint.
 
The rear mounting area was even worse than I thought, I will go take some pics tomorrow on what the rust area looks like and post them. The problem with the bolt is it is a torques and is rounded in the fit area. The next size up will not fit in. I can spray it with any thing suggested but I can not get any tools on the round head to turn it.
 
PATR8 said:
The problem with the bolt is it is a torques and is rounded in the fit area. The next size up will not fit in. I can spray it with any thing suggested but I can not get any tools on the round head to turn it
Click to expand...

Ah, bummer. Could you try force fitting a screw driver head down into it and then turn? Might there be enough mechanical tension with that approach? If the bolt itself is ready to be turned that might work.
 
maybe a dremel will cut a slot in the bolt and a screwdriver will work?
Tom, WD40 is in my toolbox as a cleaner only and it does that very well, but as a lubricant I find it lacking, especially so in the penetrant, loosening area. Hard to beat the PBB and Freeze off if PBB won't work. But Freeze off is very expensive. I asked my engine rebuilding shop about a better degreaser than Simple Green and he uses CRC Brakecleen for tough jobs that don't make sense to drop into his big cleaner.
 
Just had to cut my greasecaps off the Gt, DPO had used a hammer and chisel to mangle the heck out of them. Dremel was just the tool to cut enough back to get a purchase with grips.
 
On those stuck seat bolts, try one of the small grinding stones that you put into a drill. It might take one or two just to grind the head off, but you can buy them for around a buck a piece. If you send me a PM with your email address, I might be able to send you some pics of the last one I did. I was planning on strengthening the floor and adding a roll hoop to my green car this Winter, so maybe I can send you some step by step photos. I just have to finish cleaning up the TR7 on my lift now before I move onto another project. That TR7 keeps throwing me curveballs. I went to do a clutch on it. Got it all apart, replaced fluid and shifter bushings on the tranny. Power washed it. Went to bolt on new clutch from Woody- wrong clutch. Got new clutch- noticed flywheel had heat cracks. Bolted on clean flywheel- won't turn. Apparently TR7s changed flywheels in mid 78. Older stlye rubs against the rear engine plate bolts. Had three old flywheels and no newer stlye ones. Now I have to wait till Monday to have the only one that fits machined. Between that and the snow, another lost weekend.
 
Todd-
You need to find the engine plate that has the bigger holes so those pesky bolts that are hitting the flywheel become recessed into the rear engine plate. Billy (You know who) had this happen on the plexiglass green 76 TR7 when he converted it from 4-speed to a 5-speed. We had to find the right rear engine plate for the 5-speed. You must has about 50 of them for ballasts for the ITS car look through and you will see there are two different 5-speed rear engine plates.
 
Hi there - that pic is a little hard to make out. Is that looking down at the joint between the floor and rear bulkhead?
 
Yes, spent lots of time trying to get the pics but the Florecent lights make too much reflections. the metal is really solid up to probably 1/8 before the weld and 1/8 above the weld.
 
OK - thought that is what we were looking at.

So is the plan to cut the rot out and let in new metal? I've never done that repair before, but it seems like there is room to mess up the rear geometry if you aren't careful. I'd ask around for ideas or experience there. Might not be an issue, but worth checking.
 
The guy who is going to do my welding is a very experienced welder (welded on the new Nuke Sub until a few years ago) he is coming up with a few options and a plan. I was intitally going to ask him to re-teach me to weld but I think I has gone beyond my skill level. I will pay him off with beer and pizza.
 
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