Hey guys,

I was taking my front and rear skids off to paint them as they were getting pretty rusty.

Long story short, I ended up breaking a bolt in the rear and the rear nut strip is also loose in the frame rail (I prolly broke the rivets holding the strip to the rail, too).

I don't see how Im gonna drill the bolt out if the whole strip is loose.

I found these JCR rear nut strips, but will I have to remove the rear bumper (factory) to replace the nut strips?

 

Why buy another set?

Remove the nutstrip and grind the nut with busted bolt off and weld in another nut.

 

You broke a bolt on the nut strip? I would put the other bolts back in the strip to hold it down and drill it out.

 

I dont see a way to remove the nutstrip without taking the bumper off. Is this true?

I was thinking a new set because mine are quite rusty and I do not have immediate access to a welder.

 

Aha! good idea, thanks.

 

Removing the rear bumper is pretty simple. 2 bolts on each side holding it to the mounting bracket. You'll have to remove the bracket (4 bolts) on the side you need to remove the strip from.

 

On my 91 we took some2" x 1/4" flat stock, cut it into sections about 3" long, and drilled a hole in each for the bolts, welded the bolts to the flat stock and slid the thing inside the frame rail. Worked like a charm. Cost about $5

 

I took sthon's advice and starting bolting the strips back down to find out that some of my holes weren't lining up.

I had a real tough time getting those bolts out to remove my gas tank skid and apparently yielded the nut strips while I was removing the bolts.









Half of the bolts I removed had blue on the threads that I assume is loctite from the factory or from the previous owner.

Since I don't have much fab tools around, I will probably order a set of those JCR nut strips now.


Any1 know the legality/safety issues related to driving with no rear bumper for a while until new strips arrive?

 

Safety issues is if you get rear ended, your gas tank is nice and vulnerable. Which could turn out ugly as you could imagine.

 

Yep, buttoned her back up.

It took me 6x longer to take everything off than put it back on with how frozen every bolt is on this thing.

So far, I've been cleaning every bolt with a wire brush and using anti-sieze. Is this normal SOP for you guys?

 

Wow, yeah replace those nut strips. Might want to consider pulling the carpet out and dealing with the floor board rust, something tells me you have a good amount.

 

Yeah, I've been wondering about that.

I plan to install some audio equipment in the following weeks and will take a look under my carpet.

 

Ran into the same problem about a year ago, only I was powder coating my skid plate. I went with the new nut strips too. Paint them though, they are bare metal. I powder coated mine and slid them. All holes line up perfectly. The skid and the hitch bolted back up fine. You will be pleased.

 

Will do and thanks for the confirmation