Seized-up stuff

[hellkat]

My Super Tenere, which got stolen and trashed last year, and then recovered, has now sat in my boss's back garden in Dagenham for almost a year.

So mr hellkat organised to have it delivered to his place in Shepherds Bush, and its now in his front room so he can work on it.

But obviously, due to lack of attention, almost every nut and bolt is corroded and rusted on.

It is, to be honest, a complete wreck.
Project, from ground up, I'm afraid. It still brings tears to my eyes to see the condition it is in. It was bad enough when I got it back, with all lights smashed, and the wiring and fairings ripped off by the Essex chavlets who nicked it.

However, we're determined to get it back up on the road, ratted to high heaven and restored to nowhere near its former pristine glory.

But having tried practically coating it in WD40 (to the detriment of all our lungs) ... still not many bolts want to move at all, and he's wrecking what few tools he has left.

Is there any magic formula that will help ease some of them off?

Its mostly just mild rust and a single winter's worth of corrosion.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Grav]

Plus Gas will sort it for you, it's dynamite.

https://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/details.php?cat=Lubricants&product=30700

Hello dahlink.

[xlfive]

are you leaving the WD40 on long enough preferbly overnight to soak in,make sure you use ring spanners they grip the nut better than open ended which can round the nut off

Other options are a bit drastic.......

appling heat from a gas torch will help to expand the metals which should crack the rust

use a angle grinder to grind the nuts off

hacksaw to cut through the bolts

finally you can drill out the old bolt

as i say a bit severe but it may be your only option,no offence but make sure you know what your doing trying the later options as you could end up doing more damage

Once you get the old bolts out apply a litle copper slip before fitting the new ones this will help them out easier next time

[Walloper]

[cestrian]

[sickpup]

Decent tools normally do the trick.

[Nath]

I've never had too much of a problem with 'siezed' nuts and bolts. If they're fucked they'll shear. If a numpty's fucked with them before they might be too rounded/burred to be removed by normal methods. But ordinarily speaking nuts and bolts undo when you put enough force on them.

My cb550 had been rotting outside for 10years before I got it. I 'rebuilt' it totally, and reused most of the original nuts and bolts. I didn't bother cleaning the rust off any of them, and used grease on nothing. Yeah a ratchet is kind of essential for working on the bike as the threads are too clogged up to tighten things up by hand at all, but I've never had any problems whatsoever with 'siezed' nuts or bolts.


I don't understand some people's obsession with grease and copperslip whatsoever. And like Sickpup said, nuts+bolts do not damage tools. If you are using the correct ring-spanner, socket or allen key, a nut/bolt will either come undone or shear.
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[G]

Wall drive socket set to avoid rounding rusted bolts .

[hellkat]

Thank you all for your help.

*snogs Grav in passing*

I shall invest in some Plus Gas forthwith.

His Maj's tools are mostly non-existent these days (having recently gone through one of those phases of nomadic homelessness where one's stuff is scattered far and wide in people's houses) - he now has a very limited set of crappy tools.

I may have to buy him some decent ones for his birthday in August.

Meantime, I'll just have to beg, borrow and steal some decent ones from nearby mates - who probably have half of his original ones anyway, LOL.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.