Hello all, I figured i'd share this experience simply because I could not find anything other than suggestions on how to do this. Here's the background: I bought my 06 1500 about a month ago and have been doing as much modifications to it that my budget will allow. The time came up and the suggestion was made that I add nerf bars simply because of how high it sits up (not lifted, just high for girls and old people apparently). So I go online and end up ordering from Ebay (02-08 RAM 1500/03-08 RAM 2500/3500 QUAD CAB 3"SIDE STEP | eBay).
Got the bars and proceed to prep for the install. First body bolt breaks off with about 1/4" of thread. Second one comes out clean. Third one breaks off flush with the body, and I didn't even try the 4th one out of fear I wouldn't be able to drive it (it ended up breaking off when we tried it).
Ok so now you have 3 broken body bolts and no easy way to remove them.
Easyouts will not work as the sleeve is too long. After I took it to a professional place (who couldn't remove it), we figured we'd give it a crack ourselves instead of paying place number 2 who wanted $85 bucks and hour.
What we found much to our dismay after pulling up the carpets is that there are no body plugs over the bolts in the floor. There is one plug in the back, but trust me, it is not over the body bolt. So here's what we ended up doing.
We measured the distance between the mount and cab end, transfered that into cab itself, and then drilled a hole using a hole saw in the floorboard.
Once you have the hole open, (I think we used either a 2.5 or 3" hole saw), and hopefully have measured correctly, you will see the top of the bolt.
More than likely you will not be able to back it out at this time but give it a go with some pb blaster and vice grips. Assuming you fail at that, time to break out some heat. We used an oxy-acetylene torch, but you can really use any source of flame depending on how long you want to wait for it to heat up. Heat up the sleeve of the mount, NOT THE BOLT, and gently rock the bolt back and forth until you hear it sqeaking. At this point, heat it up again and start turning it until it comes out (thread it out towards you, not the bottom on the truck).
The rear mounts are a little more difficult as the bolt is a good 6 inches below the floor pan and you have to remove the rear seat in order to get to the floor board. We ended up having to cut a square for the vice grips to be able to turn.
Repeat the same process for the rear bolts and once you're done, LET IT COOL. Seal it up with a plug and or rivet some new sheet metal down and you are done!! Grab a beer and marvel at your work.
Got the bars and proceed to prep for the install. First body bolt breaks off with about 1/4" of thread. Second one comes out clean. Third one breaks off flush with the body, and I didn't even try the 4th one out of fear I wouldn't be able to drive it (it ended up breaking off when we tried it).
Ok so now you have 3 broken body bolts and no easy way to remove them.
Easyouts will not work as the sleeve is too long. After I took it to a professional place (who couldn't remove it), we figured we'd give it a crack ourselves instead of paying place number 2 who wanted $85 bucks and hour.
What we found much to our dismay after pulling up the carpets is that there are no body plugs over the bolts in the floor. There is one plug in the back, but trust me, it is not over the body bolt. So here's what we ended up doing.
We measured the distance between the mount and cab end, transfered that into cab itself, and then drilled a hole using a hole saw in the floorboard.
Once you have the hole open, (I think we used either a 2.5 or 3" hole saw), and hopefully have measured correctly, you will see the top of the bolt.
More than likely you will not be able to back it out at this time but give it a go with some pb blaster and vice grips. Assuming you fail at that, time to break out some heat. We used an oxy-acetylene torch, but you can really use any source of flame depending on how long you want to wait for it to heat up. Heat up the sleeve of the mount, NOT THE BOLT, and gently rock the bolt back and forth until you hear it sqeaking. At this point, heat it up again and start turning it until it comes out (thread it out towards you, not the bottom on the truck).
The rear mounts are a little more difficult as the bolt is a good 6 inches below the floor pan and you have to remove the rear seat in order to get to the floor board. We ended up having to cut a square for the vice grips to be able to turn.
Repeat the same process for the rear bolts and once you're done, LET IT COOL. Seal it up with a plug and or rivet some new sheet metal down and you are done!! Grab a beer and marvel at your work.
