Removing tailgate hinges

[79reubenp]

Any tips on removing the tailgate hinges where they attach the hinge to the body. Tehuy seem well and truly seized and I don't want to ruin the screw heads before getting some advice! HAve considered taking a gas torch to heat them up, however, this will obviously screw my paint work.

Any ideas most welcome.

Cheers

Reuben

 

[Matt_B]

Tap the hinge with a hammer - this i what i had to do - but the taps were quite hard!

 

[BJ1]

You are very unlikely to be able to unscrew these but you might get a few out with a very well fitting screwdriver. It's worth using a 'hammer through' driver and giving the screws a good few taps before trying to unscrew them. I always drill the stuck ones out using a slow speed - and I mean very slow - and the correct sized drill (4.5mm IIRC) right down the centre, after drilling a 3mm pilot hole using the cross on the screw head as the centre mark. Then carefully clean up the threads with a tap. Just done some on a split - no damage to the threads at all.

 

[79reubenp]

That's exactly the advice I needed thanks. If the process of drilling them
out did happen to go wrong, I guess it maybe possible to use slightly
bigger screws and bore a bit more space in the hinge for bigger heads.

 

[BJ1]

That's exactly the advice I needed thanks. If the process of drilling them
out did happen to go wrong, I guess it maybe possible to use slightly
bigger screws and bore a bit more space in the hinge for bigger heads.

Yes you can do that, but if you take it easy and slow you should have no probs drilling the old screws out without wrecking the threads.

 

[79reubenp]

Will give it a go

Thank you