Hello Mud. I've been out of cruisers for about 10 years (previous was a built up 60) and recently jumped back in with a 98' LX 470. The thing is in awesome condition, both inside and out and looks like its been babied its whole life. Even the driver's leather seat is flawless and all the fake wood trim looks brand new, no yellowing or anything. Everything works like it should, even the automatic telescoping steering wheel does its thing every time the key is in and out. I picked it up with 173k miles on the clock and its been a southern california car its whole life so rust free..... or so I thought.
Long story short, bought a prinsu roof rack recently and started to take off the factory roof rack. All went fine until I got to the center bolts. One bolt on each side is rusted out and there is no tork head to unscrew with. Bad design I think on toyota's part, we had some recent rain finally and the rear bolts in the middle rack pillar were soaked because that pillar design is like a little cup that holds water, hence the bolt being rusted out... on both sides.
Very hard bolts, broke a couple drill bits, even cobalt bits won't bite into the bolt. I stopped by a body shop just to have them have a peak and maybe extract them, however they are concerned with any drilling and etc heating up the bolt and eventually catching the headliner (especially the foam portion) on fire. I never even thought about the potential for the foam catching fire so now I'm really in a jam with what to do. They say the headliner should be pulled back at a minimum to insure no fire happens.... to top it off, they aren't even really sure they want to tackle the job due to the potential and unknown of what else might happen.
Anyone else have this issue??? I'm at a loss right now because it's in such an awkward location and the headliner potential fire also has me concerned. One thought I have is to just cut away/ out the middle pillar and clean up the bolt head and then silicone the crap out of it and leave them where they sit and only use ONE middle bolt on each side (seems like the bolts are still water tight because when I was removing the rack, I had to stick rags inside the pillar to soak up the standing water, so I'm pretty sure the rust is just on the top of the bolt, and not leaking down into the threads). I figure with the front and rear mounts being fine, having only one bolt in the middle on each side should still be plenty of support and hold for the rack and anything I put up there....right??? Anyway, any additional insight is appreciated.
Pic of the offending vehicle included
Long story short, bought a prinsu roof rack recently and started to take off the factory roof rack. All went fine until I got to the center bolts. One bolt on each side is rusted out and there is no tork head to unscrew with. Bad design I think on toyota's part, we had some recent rain finally and the rear bolts in the middle rack pillar were soaked because that pillar design is like a little cup that holds water, hence the bolt being rusted out... on both sides.
Very hard bolts, broke a couple drill bits, even cobalt bits won't bite into the bolt. I stopped by a body shop just to have them have a peak and maybe extract them, however they are concerned with any drilling and etc heating up the bolt and eventually catching the headliner (especially the foam portion) on fire. I never even thought about the potential for the foam catching fire so now I'm really in a jam with what to do. They say the headliner should be pulled back at a minimum to insure no fire happens.... to top it off, they aren't even really sure they want to tackle the job due to the potential and unknown of what else might happen.
Anyone else have this issue??? I'm at a loss right now because it's in such an awkward location and the headliner potential fire also has me concerned. One thought I have is to just cut away/ out the middle pillar and clean up the bolt head and then silicone the crap out of it and leave them where they sit and only use ONE middle bolt on each side (seems like the bolts are still water tight because when I was removing the rack, I had to stick rags inside the pillar to soak up the standing water, so I'm pretty sure the rust is just on the top of the bolt, and not leaking down into the threads). I figure with the front and rear mounts being fine, having only one bolt in the middle on each side should still be plenty of support and hold for the rack and anything I put up there....right??? Anyway, any additional insight is appreciated.
Pic of the offending vehicle included
