Freeing off front wing bolts.

[wanderinstar]

Am about to remove front wings on my 2 door. The one thing I'm dreading is trying to undo 3 rear bolts only to find that the captive nuts rip out of wing. Can put plenty of release fluid on front of bolts, but this wont work its way to captive nuts. Will it? Is there any way I can apply fluid to rear of bolts and nuts? Was thinking of drilling through either A post or through kidney panel in footwell. After careful measurements of course.
What have you done?
Ian.

[Cam]

Used plenty of PlusGas, heat and generally been lucky. I have also had to grind the heads off a few bolts and then replace the captive nuts afterwards.

In my experience if you can get the ONE difficult nut undone (the top rearmost one - nearest the windscreen edge) then you are laughing. You can get a grinder in to the rest.

[SR]

half of the wing bolts on my splitty snapped off,some i pulled the nut and bolt out with manly,blokey brute force, and a couple undone!, quite an easy job to weld in zinc plated nuts though

[chickenjohn]

I found that the wing bolts cane off a lot better (and were much easier to fit the new ones) using the correct size 5/16BSF/ 1/4" Whitworth spanner/socket rather than struggling with 1/2 AF or 13mm sockets!

AS said above, plus gas and heat helps too!

[wanderinstar]

So its looking like nobody has tried to get release fluid to the back of bolts. There is a Moggy in scrappy's with front wings off, so thats where I'll be going this morning to do some careful measuring.
There is a wing off this car that is covered in surface rust, absolutely covered. Looks like it was never paitedfrom new. Question is would it be possible to completly remove rust to obtain long lasting rust free finish?
Ian.

[plastic_orange]

If you get the panel bead blasted (not shot blasted - unless you like the rippled effect) inside and out, then etch primed straight away, then primed and painted soon after it should be fine.

Pete

[Willie]

I was unsuccessful with most of mine so they ripped the captive cages apart
which meant the heads had to be ground off. Like SR I welded the nuts on
the new panels. Less bother I think than drilling holes in the body and then
hoping that release fluid does the job. Just remember to dip the bolts and
nuts in Waxoyl before you refit them, they will undo in ten years time as though you had only just fitted them.

[Cam]

If you can get at the 'cages' then clamp some mole-grips over them to hold the nut and it won't rip the cage apart (unless it's REALLY stuck and you'll need to renew it anyway).

[rayofleamington]

If you can get at the 'cages' then clamp some mole-grips over them to hold the nut and it won't rip the cage apart (unless it's REALLY stuck and you'll need to renew it anyway).

I'll second that - for the ones you can get to a lot of release fluid, good tools and mole grips on the cage work wonders! I have often tried in both directions until the thread 'cracks' free, and once it has started to move they usually need a lot of backwards/forwards and some WD40 before they can be coaxed out all the way.

As for 'taking 2 spray cans' into the garage. Yes I prefer WD40 for most jobs but when a release fluid is essential, WD40 isn't the best thing to use. Release fluid will travel a long way into rusted threads but you need to apply it regularly and give it a lot of time.

[Cam]

I much prefer PlusGas to WD40 but I can't seem to get it locally now. I did however find an old rusty can of 'Pocket Rocket' which is a penetrating fluid and it seems to work ok. Probably can't get THAT now either.