Hi guys,
Just wanted to share this with you, maybe it's something which could come in handy one day.
Currently working on my 1975 astre safari, and I needed to get the rear seatbelts out ..
The seatbelts are bolted through the floor, with a T47 bolt ... and those things GET STUCK !!!
The bolts come out of the bottom behind the rear wheelwells, and they are almost unreachable with
any tools. Ofcourse you can heat them, hit them with a hammer .. but I noticed no real difference.
I up 2 T47 sockets, so I started a little experiment :
The problem is that these bolts are in a tight spot, and they are exposed to water, salt and whatever
you can think of ... They rust and get really stuck .. and drilling them out is very hard.
This is what the problem looks like :
My experiment involves Hydrochloric acid ... Maybe you know or didn'tn but hydrochloric acid is fantastic
rust desolver ... It is mild corrosive to metals but it will attack rust first.
About Hydrochloric acid ... Yes it is the same stuff known for melting faces and all that kind of stuff, but that
is only with a concentration of 40% or higher ... you don't want to use that (if you were able to even get it)
What I'm using is <-10% solution .. it is widely available in DIY stores ...
Although it is only 10% ...you should be carefull, wear rubber gloves, don't get it in your eyes .. it's still nasty stuff !!!!
Ok, I poured a little HA in a small plastic container .. and placed it on the bolt from below,like this :
Immediatly when you place the container, it's starts to produce bubbles ... The HA is reacting with the rust and crap ...
After a day or so, the chemical process is finished ... Which will look something like this :
Most of the crap is in the container ... I know, crappy picture but you get the idea :
Now the bolt looks pretty clean ... so I gave it another shot getting it out ...
I used no heat, no banging with a hammer ... just a high-quality T47 socket (snap-on, only one I could get),
and took the biggest wrench I had ... And must say, it came out without any struggle ... piece of cake
The bolt isn't damaged by the acid, but it was offcourse rusted ... But it can be used again ...
Extra information :
I'm using hydrochloric acid, I had that in my garage. You can use more types of acid but i'm not to comfortable
with having even more aggresive stuff ... Citric acid and acetic acid will get the job done too, but takes a little longer.
Even vinegar will get it done, but that would take several days.
I will do some more of this kind of chemical experiments, Im currently derusting the inside of my fueltank with
elektrolyse, and after it's done I will zinc-plate the inside with a process called elektrolytic galvanizing...
Just FYI
Tiemen