I’m looking for some practical advice. My car is a 1968 XKE FHC, stored for 10 years and not very well taken care of before that. I’ve got it running and am now addressing the many issues of neglected TLC as I drive it while keeping it more or less original, faded paint and all.
I needed to loosen one of the rear bumpers. But despite lots of Kroil on the first stud, when I tried to loosen its nut something gave way that attached the stud inside the trunk. After removing the gas tank to get access I found the stud was simply a bolt welded to a large square washer, and the washer was attached to the inside of the body by a couple of tiny spot welds – a very weak connection that was bound to fail with any torque trying to undo a clean nut, let alone my rusty one.
To re-attach the stud, obviously a beefy spot welder would be the ultimate fix but I don’t have one. So I’m thinking of a couple of flat headed steel rivets installed from the outside, and replacing the steel nut with brass for the future. To minimize damage for the second stud on this bumper, and the two for the bumper on the other side, drill and install temporary self tap screws from the inside of the trunk to stop the stud washer tearing free from its spot welds while I remove the nuts, and then replace the screws with rivets as for the first one.
Does anyone have a better way to do this? I’m sure others have run into the same problem. Thanks for any ideas.