next »

[richk]

Hi there, My name is Rich and I'm new to the forum. I have a 62 TR3 in of some bodywork. Can anyone tell me the best way to remove the bolts that hold the fenders to the rest of the body. Mine are rusted and the slots in the bolts aren't in the best of shape.  Thanks in advance.  Rich

[charley fitch]

You need lots of luck and a good deal of patience.  Then you need a good brand of rusty bolt remover.  Try to spray the bolt remover product on any bolts that you can get access to.  Do this a day ahead of time and if possible do it several times during that day.  The bolts that extend to the underside of the fender may well have a lot of undercoating (tar) on them.  If you try to work off some of this tar you will have better luck in getting the rust remover up into the bottom part of the bolt.  When actually starting to remove the bolts work the bolt loose and then spray some rusty bolt remover in from the top, I am assuming that most of the upper bolts have enough paint on them that you cannot get any remover into them until you start them out.  Then screw the bolt back down into the nut a bit to try to get some of that rust remover into the nut.  Continue using the up several turns  and then back down a turn or so until the bolt is all of the ways out.  Do not be shy in the use of the rusty bolt remover.  I cannot tell you  what the best of the rusty bolt removers are out there.  Maybe somebody else has a favorite.  Remember that WD40 is really only a water repellant and not best for this job.  I also had to remove the door to get to the rear bolts of the fender.  Those screws required a impact driver to get loose.  If you remove the splash shield from the fender well behind the tire you may gain access to the lower part of the bolts at the rear and top of the fender.
Remember that the rear of the bolts for the door can be accessed from inside of the door if you choose to remove the door from that side of the hinge.  If a nut freezes on the bolt it will start turning in the nut cage.  Try using a pair of vise grips to clamp onto the nut cage if you can get access to it. The good news is that once you get the fender off you can tap out(clean ) or replace any of the nuts by opening up the nut cage and replacing it in kind.  They are available from Roadster Factory as are the nut cages. I will admit that I did break off at least one bolt in the removal process.  Try to avoid this as it makes getting the old nut out of the cage very difficult.
Charley Fitch 

[acro2eaa]

I concur with everything above.  I completely removed all the body panels on my TR during it's restoration.  I broke several bolts due to rust and what not.  But as the previous poster said, replacement bolts nuts and cages are available from TRF.  good thing is even though it can be a pain, it isn't horribly difficult.  You may need a can of bandaids close by for those skinned knuckles though.

sam

[bobhustead]

I did a complete body teardown last summer. Where you can get to the cages holding the square nuts, you will find that you can usually get an open end wrench or vise grips onto the cage, which, in turn, will hold the captive nut steady. You may have to bend the shank of the wrench to get a useful grip on the cage. For the front bolts on the rear fenders, removal of the trim panels above the rear fender arches will allow you to get a wrench or vise grips around the cages. You will find that use of a six point wrench on the bolt heads improves ability to turn the bolts. You may find that you have to drill some of the heads off the bolts, as I had to do with all the slot head screws holding the rear fenders to the trunk flange.  Replacement cages and nuts can be welded in place as mentioned in Chas. Fitch's reply.  There are also three very troublesome bolts arranged vertically at the rear of the rear fenders connecting them to the rear apron. The only access for a backup wrench on these is by removal of the triangular shaped bottom of the plenum that conceals the nuts. The good news is that the holes in the rear fenders at this location are slots, so a couple of flats is all you need to turn the bolt to get the fender out of the way. Once the fender is out of the way, you can use a hole saw to get into the cages/nuts in order to replace them.   

Bob Hustead