Late last year, I had removed the three bolts along the sides of the partitions, and then went to work on the single bottom bolts on each; but these bolts quickly started spinning free. I assumed at the time that there was a clip on the inside somewhere that had broken free, and I would have to resort to other measures to get these free. But, I couldn't find any way to access the back sides of this area, and quickly became frustrated and gave up for the duration.
Some weeks back, I chatted with a neighbor or two, and ended up borrowing a grinder from one. Me being a complete newbie as far as this sort of power tool goes, I was hesistant to dive in feet first, so I roped my ever-helpful neighbor Frank into assisting.
Frank gets into position with the grinder, safety gear on, and starts to go at the bolt head on the left fender partition. He doesn't get very far, maybe thirty seconds or so in, when the bolt suddenly pops out and the partition drops down a bit (though not to the ground, as the radio antenna cable keeps it somewhat in place). Both of us are surprised and puzzled.
After freeing up the cable running into the passenger compartment, and getting the partition plate out, the mystery is solved - the bolt screws into a kind of bar-like part, and there is a matching slot in the body. All that was necessary was to give that bolt a twist, lining up that bar with the slot, and to give a tug, and the bolt comes free.
I grab a pair of pliers, trot over to the right fender, grab that bolt, and start twisting it slowly as I'm tugging backwards - and pop goes that bolt.
At this point I begin mentally kicking myself in the ass, as I could have had these plates out months ago.
The partition plates, finally removed. Left is left side, with the radio antenna poking outwards - right is right side. Right side partition still has the rubber piece that meets the fender attached. (I pulled out the left side rubber piece months ago).
A closer shot of the bar-like piece the bottom bolt is attached to.
With the partitions out, I can finally access the last fender mount bolts along the tops of the fenders. Pretty difficult to see with this photo, though.
Next up is removing an entrance sill. I've been at these for many months as well. Every time I think I've got all the connectors removed, I find another.
As it turns out, there were two left as of my last effort, one front, one back. Both of these turned out to be just bolts threading into clips of some sort, no nuts. The rear one was up in a corner, and with the terrible condition of my sill, it was a little crunched in at that spot, and very difficult to reach from the inside. I had picked up a set of hinged socket extenders so I could get at these from an angle. But, trying to get the socket onto that inner nut was proving difficult, and it was because there was no nut. Once I realized this, I just went to town on the bolt itself. And with many of the smaller bolts on this old buggy, this bolt snapped clean off.
I took a better look at the remaining frontward bolt, and sure enough, same thing - no nut, and again, the bolt snapped off after a bit.
Those bolts conquered, the entrance sill itself came away with a minimum of wiggling (to break the hold of the rubber piece between it and the body at the front end)!
No sill can defeat me.
Bottom area of the sill, another view of the rusted out area.
These pieces dropped off from the front end of the sill. At this point I'm assuming that they're shims of some sort. The right part still has some of the rubber seal attached.
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