Rusty screws...any more ideas?

[twalker920]

So on my awesome 99 Astral that the previous owners (Bimati and grantCO) took such great care of, I am trying to take care of a few little issue before tackling bigger stuff (like...has the timing belt been changed ever? does it need to be now?).

I noticed one of my rear license plate lights is burned out, but the screws holding the lenses on both of them are rusted to hell, and all the WD40, elbow grease, and careful non-stripping force I can apply will not budge them.

They are too recessed to get vice grips on...I could try to dremel flats on but it's a very hard location to get to with the dremel, and I don't want to crack the lenses (I think they are glass).

Any other ideas I can try? I have the replacement bulbs. I need to get a torx wrench big enough for the cladding (my largest is a T20) if that enables me to get to the back side of the screws.

[Ldub]

So on my awesome 99 Astral that the previous owners (Bimati and grantCO) took such great care of, I am trying to take care of a few little issue before tackling bigger stuff (like...has the timing belt been changed ever? does it need to be now?).

I noticed one of my rear license plate lights is burned out, but the screws holding the lenses on both of them are rusted to hell, and all the WD40, elbow grease, and careful non-stripping force I can apply will not budge them.

They are too recessed to get vice grips on...I could try to dremel flats on but it's a very hard location to get to with the dremel, and I don't want to crack the lenses (I think they are glass).

Any other ideas I can try? I have the replacement bulbs. I need to get a torx wrench big enough for the cladding (my largest is a T20) if that enables me to get to the back side of the screws.

It's not an unheard of problem...http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...ear+door+light

Maybe drill the heads off, disassemble, & follow the instructions above?...

[twalker920]

Thanks for the link Ldub.

I need to get that torx wrench and take a look inside. Kind of surprising if everything in there is rusty...we don't get that much here in CO. The screws I can believe just from splashing and washing...but we shall see.

I would definitely go with a plastic bracket. I have some Delrin lying around from my product design days I can cut and hog to an L-shape pretty easily.

Don't have time now today to do it so I guess I know what is on next weekend's to-do list. At least there's plenty of room to fit different lenses in there if I need to.

[Ldub]

No worries...glad to help.

I think a combination of snow & road chem gets packed up in there during the winter, with who knows how many pack/thaw/pack/thaw cycles.

I've noticed a bit of rust back there too, so I'm in line behind you for this fix.

[BigSwede]

This http://www.irwin.com/tools/screw-bol...power-grip-set worked like a charm when I was battling hopelessly rusted phillips-head screws trying to get the fuel pump out of the RS...probably would work for you too.

[twalker920]

Nice. I didn't see those at Home Depot...but I did pick up a T30 Torx so I figure I'll do it right and see what the bracket looks like inside the cladding. I will go look for those tools though as this is not the only stubborn screw/bolt I have dealt with in the past.

I guess I should take some photos in case I end up doing anything major so everyone can see how not to do it.

Edit to add: there's very very little of the screw head that is sticking up above the surface of the lens...I'm not sure how much those power grips need to work. I couldn't get needlenose vice grips to grab them, let alone turn them. So I think the power grip tools will be a cost based decision, but thanks for the link.

[BigSwede]

If they are flat countersunk screws then you may be out of luck with the Powergrips...but otherwise I think they would work. I was able to extract rusty round head Phillips screws nicely with them. They kinda screw themselves onto the outer edge of the head of the screw and grab it, so they just need an edge to grab onto. Note: You probably will want replace with new screws after using the Powergrips.

[etlsport]

i took a dremel to mine. i just removed both sides all together and hardwired white LED strips into the sockets. looks awesome.

[twalker920]

Ok, so here's what I did. I was all set to take the cladding off the rear hatch, had all the fasteners out - no issues there....I have to say again how great a shape this thing is in with this many miles and how well cared for it has been. When I started looking at peeling/cutting the double sided tape to get the cladding off (I downloaded the shop manual as well as looking through the forums) I realized that this was all the original tape, and it was very firmly in place. I've learned from experience these things are never quite the same once you take this sort of assembly apart...rattles will start no matter how well I try to emulate the tape during reassembly. So I waved off on taking the cladding off to get to the license plate light bracket.

I did get a "Grabit" drill bit to try and get the rusty screws out; true to its name it grabbed it and I succeeded in shearing the heads off of them. But at least that allowed me to get the lens off and make sure it was just a burned out bulb and not a wiring issue. Once that was determined, I decided to dremel the rest of the screw body flush with the mounting holes and then re-drill new holes in the lens mount just a little offset from the original ones.

So at this point I have a new bulb in adn new holes to put new #8 sheet metal screws in to. Because the new holes force the lens to be slightly rotated on the axis of the bulb so it didn't sit entirely on the plastic/rubber seal, I put a little RTV (very little) on the lens edge then screwed it back together. It's not the most beautiful job in the world, but only I (and now all of you) know it's there since no one is going to look up in that recess.

Now every light on the vehicle works as it should, plus I threw in some Sylvania Silverstar Ultra headlight bulbs. That took about 5 minutes a side, including being very very careful not to touch the bulbs glass (that will kill the bulb life).

[blacksambo]

There's one catch with Silverstar Ultras, they only last about nine months. We've tried two sets on our VX's with same result. So, we're literally back to the Stanley oem bulbs---can't kill'em.

[blacksambo]

Regarding your screws did you consider an "easyout", sold at most NAPA stores?

[twalker920]

Regarding your screws did you consider an "easyout", sold at most NAPA stores?

The easyout is basically the same as one end of the grabit - a reverse thread tapered bit. I got the smallest one I could find to fit screws down to #4, but once the heads sheared off the shafts just were not big enough to get any wall thickness for the grabit to bite in to. I could have tried drilling them out but I didn't have a tungsten carbide bit small enough.

I don't think the easyout would have helped

Anyway, it's done and working. On to the next "improvement"!

[Y33TREKker]

For rusted screws/bolts, you can usually pick up a cheap Impact Driver set with all the regular, phillips, torx, etc. heads you'll probably need for $10-$15.



With fasteners that are rusted like that, "shocking" them loose is a good way to start while the head is still in usable condition. Once it's stripped though...

[Chopper]

My Silverstars are several years old....in the VX and the F-150
Your results may vary

[blacksambo]

I've talked to the factory on the Ultras---9 m0nths to a year.