An Easy Out for Classic Car Repairs
Brent Ackley & George VondriskaDescription
If you have ever gotten a bolt stuck in your classic car, you want to know how to use an EASY OUT. Brent Ackley shows you the slow, deliberate process so you can avoid making the expensive and time-costly mistake of having to repair a broken bolt. See how this technique helps avoid the need to make any classic car repairs in the future.
Okay, here's the situation. We're working, in this case, on a thermostat housing, and we'll take one bolt out, everything's good. And we go take the other bolt out, and the head breaks off. Well, what do you do? Well, in this situation, if you could get a hold of it with a vice grip, that's gonna be your first option. Okay, if you can grab anything that's left and try and back that thing out, if that fails ya, you're left with taking an Ez Out to the broken bolt. So, your first step is gonna be, take a center punch, and make sure ya get this thing centered on that bolt, because if ya get too close to the edge you're gonna get tight into the threads, and you could damage the threads. So you wanna get centered on that bolt. And then, this is one type of Ez Out. What ya need to do is look on the back of the package when ya buy 'em. It'll tell ya which size Ez Out uses which size drill bit, so ya drill the appropriate size hole and use the the smallest Ez Out that ya can to get the bolt out. Another type of Ez Out, same thing. It'll tell ya which size drill ya need to use. With that one, ya actually just drive in. These it has a reverse-helix on it. So as you thread that thing in, it actually bites into the bolt as it turns the bolt out. We're gonna be using this one right here today. I've already used a center punch to get my mark on the bolt. Okay, now we've got the hole started. We'll take the Ez Out, now get it started in a hole, and then we just start threading it in backwards. And that thing should break loose. And if it breaks loose, just keep working that thing out. And right now, with this thing broke loose, it would be an absolutely perfectly appropriate time to do the happy dance, because ya just saved yourself probably two hours in labor. Because your next step if this doesn't get it out, is to re-drill the hole bigger than what's actually there and re-tap it. So, this one's coming out. We get another bolt that's this size and we can put our thermostat housing back together.
Good info and works well if fastener isn't rusted/corroded too badly. Not knowing before hand just how well the fastener is "welded" in I would handle the process a little differently. 1: soak with penetrant 20-30 min. 2: rap with a hammer a few time gently. 3: drill completely through the broken fastener if possible. This relieves some of the tension on the threads and will let the penetrant seep up to the threads as well. JM2CW