STUBBORN NUTS AND BOLTS

Seized and sheared nuts and bolts can transform a simple task into a real nightmare, so follow our guide to help avoid problems and fix them.

When a nut snaps off, or a spanner spins round on the head of a bolt, the seconds taken to undo a fitting can turn into half an hour or more spent drilling and tapping. Similar trouble, such as seized fittings, can also add hours onto an otherwise straightforward job.

There are lots of ways to avoid such catastrophes and if the worst should happen, there are thankfully many remedies to get you back on track. The following pages outline the tools and tricks of the trade to help. With several step by step guides, we’ve covered the best methods for slackening a nut or bolt to avoid snapping it or rounding it off. We’ve also listed some of the tools that can be used to help undo seized nuts and bolts. There’s information on some of the professional brute force methods and if something should break, we’ve included guidance on how to remove the remains and fix the problem.

Seized nuts and bolts are often inevitable, especially on classic cars that have been subjected to road salt and other equally corrosive substances. It’s also a problem for plastic fixings, where they become brittle and perished. The trick is to know how to avoid such problems. Avoid losing your temper when undoing fixings that are awkward or seized. Think around the problem before you power up the angle grinder and proceed to cut up the entire car and weigh it in!