[SSLance]

So Plan A to remove the broken bolt was a bust. I raised the body about 5 inches above the frame but it is still pretty tight to get in the area. Frame on the bottom side, covered by the fender hanging down on the outside, and the gas tank on the inside. Can only really get to one side of the bolt through the rear tire area.

I cleaned the bolt the best I could with a wire wheel and tried to get a nut on it. The threads are completely gone and of the nuts I had on hand, one wouldn't get started and the other slid all the way up to the cage nut. I was able to get the smaller one half way force threaded onto the bolt and attempted to weld it to the bolt. This is where I ran into trouble, I could not get the ground clamp anywhere on the body where the ground would conduct to the bolt. I ended up just holding the ground clamp up against the nut on the back side while trying to attempt to weld them together from the front. After a couple of attempts I thought I had them bonded...but just a little bit of pressure on the wrench broke the nut free again.

With the nut on the bolt, just a very little tip of the bolt is sticking through and there isn't enough room above the nut to stitch a weld there either. And with the ground clamp just up against the nut, the nut gets red hot very fast and starts burning but it doesn't appear as if the penetration is getting to the bolt at all. I'm assuming this is either because of the ground situation, corrosion on the bolt or just my lack of welding skill. I gave up for the night...

The only thought I had to try before going with the "cut the bolt off and drill it out method" is to make a small piece of rectangular shaped 3/16s steel and drill a hole in it just large enough to fit over the bolt. This way I could slide it up over the bolt and have a larger area of bolt to weld to the piece of steel. I could then either try to turn the steel or slide a larger nut over the bolt and weld it to the steel plate and then turn them both with a wrench. The idea of the steel is it's thinner which will give me more of the broken bolt below it to get a better weld on. Does anyone think that is worth a shot?

If that doesn't work, then I'll have to pull the rear bumper cover and possibly the front bumper cover, radiator hoses, brake and master clutch cylinder assemblies and the engine wire harness and go ahead and lift the body up off of the frame to get better access to the area to start the drilling out process.

Aren't cars fun...