Help! Stubborn bolts!

[JudyW]

The brackets that hold the seat belt harnesses are killing us! Bolts won’t drill out, and we can’t get an angle grinder in there. Any suggestions?

[CHEESE_WAGON]

Those are probably Torx bolts, and these are probably made of a high-strength material to prevent breakage in an accident. Blowtorch or correct size Torx bit, with an impact. Hopefully you haven't drilled them where they can't be removed normally, hence I offer the plan B of blowtorch. Can't be tight if it's a liquid.

[musigenesis]

Get the largest hole saw that will fit into those circular depressions and around the bolt heads (maybe 1" or 1.25"?) and use it to cut through the track around each bolt head. The track will come off and then the bolt heads will be exposed for some angle grinding.

[Danjo]

They are grade 8 or 10 and will dull a drill bit in about 15 seconds. Did you try to unscrew them? On my bus they were 3/16 Allen socket screws. The screws for the shoulder belts were easy since they were t gummed up with undercoater.

If you can’t unscrew it looks like a metal cutting disk in an angle grinder would work.

[magnakansas]

find and buy a tungsten carbide drill bit... They will not bend at all... they will shatter. go watch some utube videos about tungsten carbide drill.... go about 3/8" about 9mm or 10mm. buy two, you are likely to break one. also consider dremel tool with "reinforced" cutting discs.. slow but will get the job done.... try using what is called an "impact driver" that uses 5/16" bits as a first resort... you use a hammer to make an impact driver work..... Proto brand is my go to ... harbor frieght ought to be fine but the bits suck... spend the pennies for good bits, they are considered consumables so buy several.

1) impact driver
2) carbide drills
3) dremel tool
4) cutting torch


start with one and work your way down the list..

william

[cadillackid]

yep tungsten carbibe, Low RPM and USE CUTTING OIL! or you will ruin the bit or snap it off.. drilliing grade 8 sucks no matter what.. start with a small hole and work up in steps..

[Bpike]

And some heat never hurts, especially if you can follow that with some super cold. Like torch for heat and then an inverted can of duster squirted on them for cold

[JudyW]

All 3 anchors successfully removed. Torx bit & impact driver did the trick!

Plan B was impact driver and acetylene torch - but didn’t come to that!

Thanks skoolie friends!!

[Truffles]

I was about to comment that we had to get an impact driver to get ours out. That thing has been INVALUABLE for the bus demo.