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How I used to fight with rusty bolts vs. now giving them a little heat first
I used to be one of those guys who would just grab the biggest breaker bar I had and lean into a rusty control arm bolt until my knuckles turned white. Probably broke two or three bolts that way over the years, and spent a whole Saturday drilling out a lower strut bolt on a 2005 Accord because I got impatient. My old boss, Mike, kept telling me to hit it with the torch for 30 seconds first, but I thought I knew better. Then about 6 months ago, I seized up a caliper bracket bolt on a rusty Subaru in the middle of a job and had to call a buddy to bring his induction heater over. He zapped it for maybe 20 seconds and that bolt came out with a 3/8 ratchet like it was butter. Now I keep a cheap propane torch in my box and hit every suspension bolt that looks crusty before I even touch it. I still break the occasional exhaust stud, but that's a different nightmare. Has anyone else had that moment where they finally gave in to the old timer advice and it actually worked?
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finleyl559d ago
Hold up, is it really that big of a deal? I mean sure I've snapped a couple bolts in my day but a little patience and some elbow grease usually does the trick. Torching everything seems like overkill when a good penetrating oil and a solid breaker bar have worked for decades. Maybe I'm just lucky or haven't run into the rust you guys see, but I'm still on Team Muscle over here. A propane torch feels like one more thing to trip over in the shop and a waste of time for bolts that come out fine half the time anyway.
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