REGAL So, uh... wtf?

[axisg]

while you have the hole open sway some lube in there to settle for a couple months. You may just get lucky and have one of that bolt come out intact. My car had that bolt when I bought it but somewhere along the line it just disappeared .......

 

[MrSony]

while you have the hole open sway some lube in there to settle for a couple months. You may just get lucky and have one of that bolt come out intact. My car had that bolt when I bought it but somewhere along the line it just disappeared .......

Nah. That bolt just spins. It's gonna have to either fall out or be cut out.

 

[TURNA]

while you have the hole open sway some lube in there to settle for a couple months. You may just get lucky and have one of that bolt come out intact. My car had that bolt when I bought it but somewhere along the line it just disappeared .......

Yeah definitely lube your hole before you do anything with it!

 

[ham1974]

I have had 4 montecarlos and a regal and all have had rust in the rear frame rail area. I live in Virginia so we put down the salt. My current project we replaced the rear rails with ones from another car and all the bolts were eaten up.

 

[axisg]

Point is the bolt spins but it is still intact. That means there is a parallegram plate of steel that the bolt threads into which is still in the body of the car ( aka body mount pocket ). If the bolt is intact and not fallen out then the cage is busted or rotten letting it spin. If you lube it down you have the chance of drilling a hole or cutting a flap up on your trunk floor along the line of the hole you have now. Thus by wedging that steel plate with a pry bar you have a slight chance to un-thread the bolt instead of breaking it. Then you can go the hockey puck route ( because roadkill ) and replace that bushing instead of letting it flop around like a rotten banana.
IIRC on my car of the 4 rear mounts in total I had 2 missing, 1 broke and the last came out whilst stripping the thread out of the block I mentioned. I cut 4x round holes in the trunk floor, to gain access to those plates and tried to reuse them by running the tap thru them but the cages were still shot so I re-engineered it. I used SAE bolts and nyloc Nuts with new body mounts and the big flat washers that came in the kit to sew it all back together because the banging of the frame on the body over railroad tracks was making me mental. Takes 2 people though. One under the car and a monkey in the trunk with the torque wrench. Put mine in threads down as there is more room under the car if your bolts are a little longer.

 

[pontiacgp]

I got my rusted body bolts off the easy way, I lifted the body off and soaked the bolts and anchor for a few days, with a torch and vice grips I got them all the anchors off. Then I soaked the anchors in oil which I heated up occasionally for few weeks, then I rebuilt the cages and welded them in, bought new metric bolts and when I was finished mounting the body I wonder what the f was wrong with me not just using the much cheaper SAE nuts and bolts instead of wasting my time rebuilding 9 cages.....

 

[MrSony]

Point is the bolt spins but it is still intact. That means there is a parallegram plate of steel that the bolt threads into which is still in the body of the car ( aka body mount pocket ). If the bolt is intact and not fallen out then the cage is busted or rotten letting it spin. If you lube it down you have the chance of drilling a hole or cutting a flap up on your trunk floor along the line of the hole you have now. Thus by wedging that steel plate with a pry bar you have a slight chance to un-thread the bolt instead of breaking it. Then you can go the hockey puck route ( because roadkill ) and replace that bushing instead of letting it flop around like a rotten banana.
IIRC on my car of the 4 rear mounts in total I had 2 missing, 1 broke and the last came out whilst stripping the thread out of the block I mentioned. I cut 4x round holes in the trunk floor, to gain access to those plates and tried to reuse them by running the tap thru them but the cages were still shot so I re-engineered it. I used SAE bolts and nyloc Nuts with new body mounts and the big flat washers that came in the kit to sew it all back together because the banging of the frame on the body over railroad tracks was making me mental. Takes 2 people though. One under the car and a monkey in the trunk with the torque wrench. Put mine in threads down as there is more room under the car if your bolts are a little longer.

Yeah, the cage is free spinning with the bolt. And I hear ya on that banging sound. It makes the car sound like it's... well like the body and frame are tying to part ways. I'll probably go the method of chopping up my formerly pristine trunk floor in those spots and welding in fresh metal. What a time to learn how to weld.

 

[axisg]

you don't necessarily need to weld. The caged nut is in a pocket under the trunk floor. Really the nut is a plate of steel in the shape of a parallelogram that has a hole in the middle and tapped with a metric thread. That plate makes contact with the sides of the pocket / cage to keep it from spinning so on the assembly line they could tighten the bolt from the bottom ( hence the shape ). The cage also keeps the plate from flopping around when you are trying to line up your bolt.
If those pockets are still relatively intact you can cut open an access hole, square, or other shape or design of your choice to those pockets from the topside of your trunk floor to get access to that plate. Remove, re-use, whatever. Once repaired if you desire you can then cut a piece of sheet metal larger than the hole and use seam sealer to seal it back up. It's not structural in any way so you don't need to weld them shut. The only one of the 4 in the trunk that is a PIA is where the jack mount is. You have to drill the spot weld and remove that bracket ( or bend it out of the way ) to gain access to the the caged nut in that location. Here in the rust belt it has been a common way of dealing with bad, missing or rotted mounts. So its not uncommon to pull back the trunk carpet and see 4 patches sealed to the trunk floor where the body mounts are.

If you can get that bolt out it is a pretty quick fix. 2.5" Hole saw, hockey puck, an hour and back in business. That keeps the car rolling while you add body mounts to your shopping list

 

[axisg]

Google or visit Conrad site for visual reference. I picked up a set of replacement pockets for my car in the case that I ever get around to seperating body from frame as 1 of the pockets on my car is brittle.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/conradlozier/