Re: Rusty Nuts and Bolts

Posted by Charles On 2011/1/1 13:41:48

Gary,

I have found that the quality of the fasteners used by Packard is so high, breaking them does not happen very often. My car is in sad shape and I have only broken one bolt so far, and that was intentional because I didn't want to waste time freeing a rusted nut. Penetrating oil seems to really be the trick. On larger bolts, an impact wrench will also come in handy. The vibration of the tool will break the rust free and the nut or bolt should come out easily.

Once the fastener is apart, I like to use a media blast cabinet to clean the parts. It is a very useful tool and in my opinion, will make life a lot easier. You can clean a lot of smaller parts with it quickly and easily. The tumbler also works, but takes a lot longer and is not as versatile. I do not know how much media blast cabinets cost in the UK, but here, Harbor Freight sells a nice cabinet top model that is not much more than a tumbler would cost, considering everything you can do with it. Of course, you are also going to need a large compressor to run it if you do not have one already.