Under the knife. Beginning my 97 conversion.

**Amphiron** · 06-18-2011, 04:24 PM

Started the 97 conversion today getting it ready before it goes into paint.

It's going terrible for 2 reasons
1. The car was in an accident even tho the carfax was clean
2. The car was fixed by fucking Joe Bob the local drunk or something. Holy crap, the headlight bucket has been banged back into place... with a hammer. All of the bolts have been tightened past their stress point. They all broke pretty much instantly after turning on them just a little even after soaking in PB blaster for 2 hours.

So now I have a pile of broken bolts and I really have no clue how to fix this other then to just drill and tap them out. Or maybe I should buy a bolt extractor?

**box** · 06-18-2011, 04:51 PM

ive never really had any luck with bolt extractors, chances are those bolts are cross threaded and rusted in there anyway.\

Id skip them and go straight to drilling/tapping. Drill the holes out with a left hand drill bit, you might get lucky on some of the bolts, if not, tap away

**Mattdeathdealer** · 06-18-2011, 04:57 PM

I broke a few a bolts.... not as many as you but i just drilled them out with a smaller diameter bit then the end of the bolt would usally just fall threw. I also soaked the remaining bolt seemed to help. Everything looks nice! except for your light buckets :P

**93STLTH** · 06-18-2011, 09:58 PM

I was lucky, when I did my RT conversion, the only bolts that I had to use an extractor on were for the headlight covers and only 2 at that. Everything else come off like it just rolled off the assembly line last week! One of the benefits of living in So Cal for the past 12 years.

**IPD** · 06-19-2011, 02:37 AM

i broke quite a few. if i break several more...i'll probably just get new mount plates for the bumpers/etc. drill/tap is probably best.

you want to talk about PITA? we had to fry the bolts from my mudflaps with a blowtorch & beat the snot out of them in order to get them apart. good times. and that was easy. trying to get my rear OEM brake lines apart without destroying them is impossible.

**ictponder** · 06-19-2011, 09:40 AM

Real easy fix for this. Use a torch to heat up the stud that is stuck. As it cools, spray it with PB Blaster. I had the same problem and was able to turn most of them by hand after this method. It works 100% of the time for me.

**Amphiron** · 06-19-2011, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by ictponder

Real easy fix for this. Use a torch to heat up the stud that is stuck. As it cools, spray it with PB Blaster. I had the same problem and was able to turn most of them by hand after this method. It works 100% of the time for me.

Thank you so much I hope this works!!

**Amphiron** · 06-19-2011, 05:00 PM

Just gonna drill new holes in some spots and then use self tappers. I just broke a bolt extractor inside of a bolt! OMFG!! and that was after heating it and PB blasting it. That really worked for the other ones tho, thanks man!
Anyways I'm trying to put the 97 bumper on my 94 stealth now but... It wont fit it seems like these mounts for the headlights are in the way... Are those there on the 2nd gen 3000gts?