Stupid seat bolt hole fully repaired!

"Clown Shoe Pilot" (csp) 02/07/2015 at 18:09 • Filed to: None

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Several weeks ago, I broke off a thread repair tool in a hole in the floor pan. Then, I tried to get it out and broke off the extractor in the hole too.

I took the car to the local indy shop and they said they could fix it and it'd probably take 2-3 hours. I told them I was willing to pay for up to 4 hours. Then, a tech came in on the weekend and worked on it for 6 hours. Since the shop is not run by crooks and the owner is playing the long game he only charged me for 4, and now I'll go back there the next time I need work done that I can't do myself.

The tech ended up cutting out the bit of floor pan w/ the threaded bung in it, cut the bung off, and then welded on a new bung and a backing nut. Then he welded all that back into the car, ground it down a bit and painted it, then put the carpets back in.

The only minor complaint I had was that something seemed to go sideways and the seat bolt wouldn't run all the way into the hole. The bolt was sticking up and causing the seat to get stuck when I tried to run it forward and back.

Since the guys at the shop had done the hard work, I figured I could finish up. I pulled the seat back out and then used my GOOD tap set (and not just a thread repair tool) to slowly and carefully chase the threads in the repaired hole. I did end up cutting a little metal. I went slow and used plenty of lube and also cleared my chips regularly. I ran the repair tool down both bolts and then used copious amounts of compressed air to clean everything up.

GREAT SUCCESS!! Now my seat is back in the car, doesn't shift around and doesn't get caught up on the bolt when moving forwards and backwards. To celebrate, I took a drive to a nearby twisty road in the hills, where I promptly got stuck behind a guy pulling a Uhaul trailer for 5 miles through the best part of the road. I turned around at the other end and then waited for several minutes so I could be fairly certain there was no one on the road in front of me and then did the return run. It was glorious.