Marty;
BTDT ! I, too, broke several drill bits on broken seat belt bolts at
the B-post. I tried heat (though not cherry red for fear of setting
something afire!), Vise Grips, impact tools, and lots of different
solvents. No dice. What finally worked was using a grinder to cut the
exposed bolt piece as short as possible, then getting a series of new
titanium-coated drill bits in diameters considerably smaller than the
bolt. I believe the seat belt bolts themselves are 7/16" dia. But the
drill bits I finally ended up starting with were 1/8" dia. After I
succeeded in drilling through (on center using a punch) with that, I
proceeded then to 3/16" dia., then 1/4, etc... After all the effort,
anything that worked was great! I believe my largest diameter drill bit
was 1/2". I then bought a 7/16 tap (can remember the pitch, offhand)
and tapped the holes out (had two bolts to drill out!) and all's now
well. Whew!
Good luck!
Dave
CF25194U+O+TBI
----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Romagni <mrdr3600@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 3:15 pm
Subject: [6pack] B Pillar Blues
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
> Hello everyone,
>
> This year I finally have my TR6 in storage that is warm and
> I can work on it in the winter. Now Im tackling a number of
> projects. I got my passengers side high beam to work thanks to
> several of you on this list.
>
> FWIW, it was a bad ground.
>
> Next up is correct seat belt mounting. For reference, my TR6 has 3
point seat belts. > The problem is that the drivers side seat belt is
mounted incorrectly. The point > that should be attached to the
bottom of the B pillar is instead attached to the > same point as
the middle, that is, the bolt under the retractor.
>
> The reason is that the bolt in the B pillar has been broken off. I
have tried to > drill out the stud with no success. Ive snapped off
several drill bits in an > attempt to do so.
>
> So now I'm looking for other alternatives to removing the stud or
another
> way to mount that point of the seat belt. Ive considered removing
the
> rear fender, but I'm not sure I can access the broken off stud if I
did that.
> How hard is it to cut out the B pillar? Should I weld another bolt to
the
> bottom of the B pillar to mount the seat belt? Other things that I've
considered
> is relocating the mounting point to the heel board (the vertical part
that is
> attached to the rear floor assembly).
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Marty Romagni
> Painesville, OH
> 1974 TR6
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