Stripped Tailgate Screw - March Forward or Cut & Run?

[primetime4]

I might have pushed my thirst for upgrades a little too far with this one but being the one and only owner of my 2001 Sport, I feel like it deserves attention after 18 years of faithful service. After reading about the heavy duty MORyde hinges, I thought installing these would be a good idea given the condition of the current hinges. There is no sag or squeaks but you can tell the metal is bubbling underneath. I recently upgraded to 31 inch tires so thought this would prevent issues down the road as well.

After picking up a hand impact tool and small torch, I thought I would be ready to take on bolt removal. 2001s use the torx head bolts that I expected to have issues with so I proceeded to heat the first one up as a test and sure enough... it came right off. A little more heat for the second one and same thing. At this point, everything is looking pretty good. A little more heat for the third one and it instantly rounded off completely without budging at all. It had the same feel as the first two so my first thought was that it came out as expected but this was not the case. I pulled out my screw extraction kit, drilled out the head a bit and tried to remove it with the extractor. Not even close. The bolt head is too hard for the extractor to bite into. So I basically put the 2 bolts back in, painted over everything with some touch up paint (looks hideous because some of the paint flaked off from the heat) and pretended nothing had happened.

Now... I am wondering if I should give it another go or just give up altogether or even bring it somewhere. I looked for a different extractor kit and found this from Irwin.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002SRG66/?tag=wranglerorg-20

This looks much better than the kit I currently have but I have never had much luck extracting rounded bolts in general. Should I buy this somewhat pricey kit or just cut my losses and leave everything as is? Will a shop be better equipped to handle this or will they be cursing at the bolts just like me?

Thank you.

 

[Boinked]

I might have pushed my thirst for upgrades a little too far with this one but being the one and only owner of my 2001 Sport, I feel like it deserves attention after 18 years of faithful service. After reading about the heavy duty MORyde hinges, I thought installing these would be a good idea given the condition of the current hinges. There is no sag or squeaks but you can tell the metal is bubbling underneath. I recently upgraded to 31 inch tires so thought this would prevent issues down the road as well.

After picking up a hand impact tool and small torch, I thought I would be ready to take on bolt removal. 2001s use the torx head bolts that I expected to have issues with so I proceeded to heat the first one up as a test and sure enough... it came right off. A little more heat for the second one and same thing. At this point, everything is looking pretty good. A little more heat for the third one and it instantly rounded off completely without budging at all. It had the same feel as the first two so my first thought was that it came out as expected but this was not the case. I pulled out my screw extraction kit, drilled out the head a bit and tried to remove it with the extractor. Not even close. The bolt head is too hard for the extractor to bite into. So I basically put the 2 bolts back in, painted over everything with some touch up paint (looks hideous because some of the paint flaked off from the heat) and pretended nothing had happened.

Now... I am wondering if I should give it another go or just give up altogether or even bring it somewhere. I looked for a different extractor kit and found this from Irwin.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002SRG66/?tag=wranglerorg-20

This looks much better than the kit I currently have but I have never had much luck extracting rounded bolts in general. Should I buy this somewhat pricey kit or just cut my losses and leave everything as is? Will a shop be better equipped to handle this or will they be cursing at the bolts just like me?

Thank you.

I should have taken pictures of mine. If you are replacing the bolts. Just drill the head off. 5/16" bit till the head pops. Remove the hinges. That will leave you enough to get vice grips on the stud when the hinges are removed. I drilled out 4 of mine. All 4 spun easy after the head was popped.

Edit.. slow speed heavy feed when drilling.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

I should have taken pictures of mine. If you are replacing the bolts. Just drill the head off. 5/16" bit till the head pops. Remove the hinges. That will leave you enough to get vice grips on the stud when the hinges are removed. I drilled out 4 of mine. All 4 spun easy after the head was popped.

Edit.. slow speed heavy feed when drilling.

That method works well, I've done that a few times. If you have a welder and know how to use it you could also weld a bolt to that stripped bolt head. That would both super-heat the bolt to loosen it and give you bolt head to use a wrench on. I've welded bolts onto seized bolts and it's almost ridiculous how easily they unscrew after getting that hot.

 

[primetime4]

Awesome... never thought about popping the head off but that makes a lot of sense. That gives me some new life without sinking more money into this so the march continues.

Thank you!

 

[mrblaine]

Awesome... never thought about popping the head off but that makes a lot of sense. That gives me some new life without sinking more money into this so the march continues.

Thank you!

Use a good bit, have several on hand. It takes a bit of practice to get the speed right when you start with light pressure. If you push hard, the flutes will lock into the recessed area and snap one or both off the bit rendering it useless until re-sharpened. Light pressure and when the bit is turning good, increase until the head pops off. Sometimes the hole will be slightly off center to the shank so after you get a pretty good hole, start moving the drill around to wallow out the hole, start small and increase the wobble as it gets deeper.

 

[primetime4]

Just a quick update. I went back at this project with some gusto and drilled out the stripped bolt. Not a quick job but the first one came out perfectly. I could almost hand loosen it once the top came off. The second bolt not so much. It actually broke a little bit so the remaining piece is not as long but more importantly, it appears to be completely bonded to the tub. It's not rusty by any means but more like 18 years of metal on metal bonding. I am going to give in and take it to a shop to finish.

Thanks again for all of the help.

 

[IssacToast]

I should have taken pictures of mine. If you are replacing the bolts. Just drill the head off. 5/16" bit till the head pops. Remove the hinges. That will leave you enough to get vice grips on the stud when the hinges are removed. I drilled out 4 of mine. All 4 spun easy after the head was popped.

Edit.. slow speed heavy feed when drilling.

So I tried doing that and I cut the head off and that worked but now the studs are still aren’t moving, anyone have any ideas?

 

[mrblaine]

So I tried doing that and I cut the head off and that worked but now the studs are still aren’t moving, anyone have any ideas?

Needlenose Vise Grips.

 

[Boinked]

Another thing you can try is a stud extractor. You might have luck with one of these.

https://www.autozone.com/tools-and-...5N9vuLs4Zp-gWUFhqIhoCi9EQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[MikekiM]

I should have taken pictures of mine. If you are replacing the bolts. Just drill the head off. 5/16" bit till the head pops. Remove the hinges. That will leave you enough to get vice grips on the stud when the hinges are removed. I drilled out 4 of mine. All 4 spun easy after the head was popped.

Edit.. slow speed heavy feed when drilling.

This is what I did. Once the head was off, the hinge popped off. The remaining stud backed out with nary a complaint.

 

[Dan T.]

This is what I did. Once the head was off, the hinge popped off. The remaining stud backed out with nary a complaint.

Will be trying this the next few days. The heat didn’t work for me

 

[MikekiM]

Will be trying this the next few days. The heat didn’t work for me

Heat didn't work for me either. I had a similar experience as you... a few backed out surprisingly easy and two or three were REALLY stubborn. Those had to be drilled out.