$%^$@& back east cars, stupid bracketry

Just ranting, but, people who live back east should be required by law to spray every bolt on the undercarriage with some WD40 at the end of fall as a preventative measure for idiots like me who buy them in a warm sunny rust free desert climate.

Putting an 01+ exhaust mani on the 2000 NB, and while PB blaster the night before seemed to do the trick for the upper half bolts, everything on the lower half is rust-welded in place, and no amount of PB blaster seems to have worked. I even "day-soaked" the bottom half again while I was doing "other stuff". Nothing.

This car came from Nebraska, but it's so clean you'd think it was an AZ car. There's just a little bit of surfast rust on the undercarriage here and there, and apparently it's enough to cause complete misery as I try to work on stuff.

@#$%&&$@$#@$#$@$#@$!!!$$$

So I finally decide, heck with it, I'll pull mani and down pipe as one assembly, just get that bad boy out; I can use the down pipe I got with the mani. Nope, a bracket holding the exhaust to the trans. Rusted to all h-e-double hockey sticks. Fine, I'll unbolt the bracket from the trans. Looks really clean, not crappy like the bracket bolt. Doesn't budge. Skip breaker bar, go straight to impact gun, which routinely breaks stuff at 200ft. lbs. Nothing. No movement at all. Zero.

At the end of my night, and wits, I was going to sawzall the bracket. No sawzall blades.

Go to HD, figure I'll get a couple. HD is out of the single buy sawzall blades, bought the pack of 5.

I hope that's not a harbinger.

Ugh.

Rant over.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

I know that feeling all to well. Working on 70s-80s era J-tin will teach you the wonderous strength of rust. Hope it all goes well for you!

You need heat!!!! The blue wrench is mandatory up here in the rust belt.

I really try not to laugh when I read rants like this. Unfortunately, this is something we deal with on 5-year old cars up here. It's normal. Anyone that does any wrenching in his garage has MAP gas. If you do much at all you have an oxy-acetylene set. Oh, and skip peanut-butter blaster. Get some ZEP 2000. Harder to find but works much, much better. It sprays out almost like spray trim adhesive so it stays where you spray it and just works on the rust. Oh, and get a thread file. I file the exposed threads of a stud/bolt before removing the nut to help prevent them getting all brokded.
My most effective way to deal with rust is the fly-and-drive. I try to buy my cars from south of the Mason/Dixon line.

Spoiled Arizonan that recently moved to salt country, I can't look forward to experiencing winter because this is making me anxious. Even though its 4 months away.....

OldGray320i wrote: Just ranting, but, people who live back east should be required by law to spray every bolt on the undercarriage with some WD40 at the end of fall as a preventative measure for idiots like me who buy them in a warm sunny rust free desert climate.

Won't do a damn thing. The most it will do is attract dust which absorbs moisture which stays close to the metal.

Cheaper and easier to just get one of these:

That is assuming penetrating oil and patience with fasteners doesn't work. (PB Blaster is garbage. There's way better product on the market)

Rust = Natures Loctite

In reply to Knurled: Same tool, different brand, used it to take a part a '63 ford that had been sitting in a field for 40 years.

i never knew how bad the cars here in MN were until i got my Nova, which was a fresh California transplant... it was weird taking apart bolts that had been tightened on an assembly line 3 decades earlier and only needing a 3/8" drive ratchet while not having to try to avoid fallng chunks of rust..

I just sawzalled that same bracket off yesterday. It was not a fun time.

In reply to novaderrik:

I lived and worked as a mechanic in New Jersey for 12 years before moving to Minnesota. Did not know what rusty/rusted fasteners were until then. Induction heaters are great on most rust, especially in tight places. However, the fire wrench is needed on really old rust. After 30+ years here, I HATE rust.

In reply to OldGray320i:

Why were you swapping manifolds? Better performance, lighter?

Having lived in ohio since I started driving Im amazed at any car that I don't need a torch to work on. you can count on anything exhaust or suspension related being miserable with rust unless you find a unicorn! this is why im glad my wagon had overkill undercoating from the factory.

For all the knock Florida seems to get, I never did have issues with stuck bolts on my cars, I assume areas closer to the beaches might have more issues with salt, but being a good 40+ miles inland, I never had any issues on various on the various cars I've had.

Now sun damage, interior plastics cracking, etc, that is more of an issue lol

Knurled wrote:

OldGray320i wrote: Just ranting, but, people who live back east should be required by law to spray every bolt on the undercarriage with some WD40 at the end of fall as a preventative measure for idiots like me who buy them in a warm sunny rust free desert climate.

Won't do a damn thing. The most it will do is attract dust which absorbs moisture which stays close to the metal. Cheaper and easier to just get one of these: That is assuming penetrating oil and patience with fasteners doesn't work. (PB Blaster is garbage. There's way better product on the market)

Damn! $549.99. I've bought cars for less than that.

Welcome to what us rust belt folks deal with everyday! :( My cousin is a mechanic and he said moving to Vegas was the best thing that ever happened to him career wise. It felt like a miracle to him to get underneath a 10 year old car and just remove rust free bolts effortlessly.

I would say that if you can avoid a Northern car then do, but for some of us that just isn't an option. Especially when it comes to daily drivers. I would travel down South or out West to get a project car, but for a daily driver that's just going to get exposed to salt in the winter anyway it's not worth the hassle.

jimbob_racing wrote:

Knurled wrote:

OldGray320i wrote: Just ranting, but, people who live back east should be required by law to spray every bolt on the undercarriage with some WD40 at the end of fall as a preventative measure for idiots like me who buy them in a warm sunny rust free desert climate.

Won't do a damn thing. The most it will do is attract dust which absorbs moisture which stays close to the metal. Cheaper and easier to just get one of these: That is assuming penetrating oil and patience with fasteners doesn't work. (PB Blaster is garbage. There's way better product on the market)

Damn! $549.99. I've bought cars for less than that.

I've never seen one of those before, don't know what it is, but if I lived anywhere but here, I'd sell body parts to get one if it worked.

Or give up on tinkering with cars (yeah, like that's going to happen...).

I'm kind of cheap with some things, but what should've been a two hour job, including time to sit and sip a beer, turned in to about a day. At that point, 5 big Ben's is worth it all day every day, and twice on Sunday....

outasite wrote: In reply to OldGray320i: Why were you swapping manifolds? Better performance, lighter?

Don't let those people who say increasing engine performance on a Miata is a waste of time fool you.

That swap was worth at least 5/100's of a second in 1/4 mile performance.

Plus, everyone knows that a factory header on one of these cars is worth at least 25.74whp, if not more, and more still with a tune.

A fire hatchet (oxygen acetylene torch) is always a big help when you can use it, next step is to find a mig welder and put a bead on the exposed end and just heating up the bolt (good for when working with aluminum heads)

OldGray320i wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: Damn! $549.99. I've bought cars for less than that.

I've never seen one of those before, don't know what it is, but if I lived anywhere but here, I'd sell body parts to get one if it worked. Or give up on tinkering with cars (yeah, like that's going to happen...).

Well we use torches to heat fasteners, have done so for years/decades. Miniductors came on the market, $1000 seems like a lotta money for what may be a gimmick.

This comes on the market, same principle lower price, Da Boss buys one. We get it two days before a nightmare job - rear shocks on an IRS Explorer. The shock nuts on those are over the frame and under the body and behind a flange so you can't really get torches in there without a lot of risk. So we try the Bolt Buster.

OMG THIS THING IS FREAKIN' RAD

Stuck fastener? Loop it over the nut, hold the button down for 15-30 seconds, nut is now red/orange and nothing else in the area is heated up. Freakin' miracle device. Going to be buying one for personal use.

So I consider this for a few hours and I'm wondering if I can get a deal on one of these....

Bam! Amazon has one for $410.89 with free prime shipping.

That'll make a splendid anniversary gift for my wife.

In reply to OldGray320i:

RIGHT……... In that case, I will just save time and $$$$ and go for a drive in the rust free Miata instead.