OK, I made an amateur mistake today.

This XJ came from WA where they apparently use chemical deicers. The unibody is in good condition, the under coating seems to have held up, but the hardware is in pretty bad shape.

So far I've snapped a bolt on the bumper, and this one at one of the top rear shock mounts. Seems I didn't use enough PB Blaster and wait long enough.

Can I get to this from above if I remove the carpet, or whatever is necessary inside? Or do I just have to keep spraying solvent and reach up in there with an e-z out in a week or so?

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

A really long punch + BFH.

 

Knock it out and feed a new bolt in

 

yep, use an air hammer, or a punch with a sledge. knock it out. Reach through the triangle shaped hole and drop a new bolt through, put a nut on it.

 

Do a search and you'll find a lot of information about this issue. The most common solution is already mentioned above.

 

Thanks for the tip. Found a video of the technique.