I remember trying last year to remove my rear spoiler to clean underneath it, and one of the bolts spins, I had removed it prior. What I can gather is happening is the bolt screws into a fixing in the spoiler, its this fixing that I believe is spinning,

any ideas how I can remove spoiler with this problem

many thanks

Vinny1979 wrote: ↑Sun May 05, 2019 3:35 pm I remember trying last year to remove my rear spoiler to clean underneath it, and one of the bolts spins, I had removed it prior. What I can gather is happening is the bolt screws into a fixing in the spoiler, its this fixing that I believe is spinning,

any ideas how I can remove spoiler with this problem

many thanks

I had the same problem on my rear number plate applique (the grey/black or body-colour thing that the number plate sticks onto).

They are mounted on studs that happen to be M5 hex-head bolts that are set into the plastic when the moulding cures. When they rust up, you rely on the hex-head being gripped by the plastic while you turn the nut but invariably you put increasing amounts of force on the nut and the bolt head just chews up the its plastic housing and spins. And you can't get to the head inside the plastic to grip it of course.

I bit the bullet and took a mini grinder to it - a cheap version of a dremel drill with a 1" silicon carbide cutting disc on a 3mm mandrel (the whole lot costs under £20 on Ebay). The aim was to cut the bolt off at least so I could free the whole backplate and perhaps then look for a replacement off another car, as I couldn't think of a way of getting the remains of the spinning bolt out of the moulding.

As it happens, the action of the grinder on the bolt made it very hot. The melting point of ABS isn't that high - a hundred-and-something degrees, so when in frustration I pulled at the rear board to see if it would come away, it came away very easily as the heated bolt with the seized nut on the end just pulled through the plastic. I hadn't actually managed to cut the nut off and I didn't need to. When the applique was completely off, I had a sized bolt and nut through the bodywork, but then I could grip the head and put a 1/4" drive on the nut and I got that off too.

It then left me with a melted hole in the moulded turret on the back of the applique board. I just drilled it out larger and bought an M5 hex spacer/coupler. I was worried about drilling the plastic and splitting the moulding, so I just put a couple of wire ties around the turret and did them up tight first, so any drilling pressure wouldn't split open the plastic. I then removed the wire ties after the hole was the right size to take the spacer. I coated the inside of the hole and coated the outside of the hex spacer with plenty of Araldite epoxy resin standard cure glue, and put an M5 long bolt all the way through the spacers threaded centre so the glue wouldn't rise up through it and gum it up when I pressed it into the hole. In fact, I did a trial fit of the spacer with the bolt screwed into it before I applied the glue. As I'd drilled the hole out a little too deep, the spacer sunk a bit too far down so I just turned the long bolt so it screwed a bit more through the insert and it was bottoming out on the moulding - this then lifted the insert so I was sure the glue would set with it flush to the moulding surface. Then I put the glue-coated hex spacer into the glue filled hole. A lot came out, but I just scraped that up and wiped off the excess and gave it 24 hours to set. I then cut the long bolt head off so the male thread sticking out was the length of the original bolt thread, cleaned up the end to make sure a nut would go on, and I was done. If the spoiler you have is a female thread into the base, then you just don't leave the long bolt in there - you remove it after the glue has partially set (about 4-5 hours for Araldite standard cure) and you've got the insert left in the moulding at the right height. If you're worried about the bolt not being removable, you could cover the end with a bit of tape, cling-film or a dab of heavy grease to stop the glue taking hold just in this small area at the end.

I used a zinc electroplated steel hex spacer, a very long brass M5 bolt, and replaced the combi nut that Rover used with a near identical one but fully galvanised. The idea was that brass doesn't corrode anywhere near as quickly as steel, and the dissimilar metals meant the steel nut wouldn't seize on the brass thread anywhere nearly as badly as the steel nut on the steel thread did before. Plus - if I have a nut on a thread and a thread into a female threaded hole/spacer, when I need to remove it again either the nut will spin on the thread or the nut is seized on the thread, but in this case, perhaps the thread will spin out of the insert - so I've 2 chances that the whole thing will come apart again in the future after another 20 years of corrosion.

I did actually cut some shallow channels into the spacer around its circumference in a couple of places using a large hacksaw (careful not to cut through to the internal threaded hole). You're using the glue more like a tough filler - the hex shape stops the insert rotating when the glue is solid and you're refitting the spoiler and torquing up a new nut on the back, but you need some channels in a ring around the insert's circumference so it'll properly resist lateral (pull-out) force by virtue of it being wedged in by solid glue rather than just relying on the glue's adhesion. If you look for "threaded insert" on Ebay rather than a hex spacer, you might find something that still has a hex external shape but it has also been turned down to a smooth cylinder half way along its length in a channel, which is ideal. Some "threaded inserts" also have a fully enclosed bottom end (blind female threaded hole) to stop the glue rising up through the insert. You might also find some that have a sort of knurled pattern on the outside designed to grip into plastic moulding - these would also work but the grip if you're really tightening the bolt up afterwards won't be as strong as if it's a hex shape to begin with.

Using the same technique on the spoiler relies on the spoiler being made out of something that will melt when you make the sized bolt end very hot (e.g. by grinding it, or perhaps tack welding onto the end of it - but where do you attach the ground lead for the welder??). I wouldn't try a blow torch as you're likely to melt/damage loads of the spoiler area underneath and you'll be doing this inside the car, so a blow torch is a no-no. You could try a very high wattage soldering iron or a soldering gun (normally rated about 100 watts and has rapid heat-up) and just holding the tip on the bolt for a few minutes before trying to give the bolt a "pull" or rather, the spoiler a "lift" up off the car. I'm not sure what the spoilers are made out of - but if it's GRP I've no idea whether it will melt around the bolt in such a civilised way as ABS did for me. But it is "glass reinforced plastic" so the plastic should melt locally I guess.

If you chop the bolt off with a mini grinder, at least you'll be able to get the spoiler off - if it's currently captive to your car. But dealing with the sawn-off bolt and spinning insert will be a right pain if it won't melt out like this. You could try and dot-punch the ground-off end and try and drill it and the insert out in one go, just leaving a big hole to put a new insert into - but best of luck with this. I haven't been too successful drilling bolts out in the past.

Here's a photo of the rear of my number plate applique with steel M5 hex spacer glued in place with the brass M5 long bolt inserted and the head cut off to provide a length of male thread similar to the original.

I was going to include this in a Viking article, and still might!



Example of the M5 zinc plated steel hex spacer that I bought. They're on Ebay for a pound and change, in various thread sizes and lengths - you can get them in brass too, but they're a bit rare.



Have a look at this advert. These are simple knurled brass inserts that would work but are low-torque. However, the advert shows lots of other designs they are probably selling in other listings - including hex and square high-toque ones with lots of channels cut in the body too:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THREADED-SOL ... 4096317255

Would a nut-crack tool fit on the nut ?

ROVER-25X wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 11:13 am Would a nut-crack tool fit on the nut ?

You're all about minimum effort, maximum effect, aren't you? Leave me and my eternal struggle ALONE

There's a slim chance your suggestion might work . But it doesn't solve the problem of a spinning insert when you come to refit it, does it?

Wouldn't have worked for me on the rear applique combi nuts either I don't think, so that's another two of these, just so I save some face:

Well if you need to borrow my smallest one i'll post it for free so long as you post it back.

Johnny 216GSi wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 12:10 pm

ROVER-25X wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 11:13 am Would a nut-crack tool fit on the nut ?

You're all about minimum effort, maximum effect, aren't you? Leave me and my eternal struggle ALONE

Ah

Well here we are 6 years later

I really need to fix this as water is now entering through the spoiler holes as all
The foam and sealer has gone