PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: Wittsend on October 02, 2017, 03:39:06 PM
-
I'm planning on removing the roof rack from my wagon. There are eight welded on pins to locate the strips on the roof. Has anyone ever removed them?
They seem to be spot welded on. I'm tempted to put a vise grip on the pin and rotate it. My concern is rather than breaking off flush with the roof I will either distort the metal, or find once the pin is removed I have a hole in the roof.
The other option is to grind them off but rarely do I find that the grinding tool doesn't do significant damage regardless of how careful one it. While I realize it with take some Bondo I'd like to minimize the amount.
And, in case anyone is wondering the portions where the hold down screws go, I'm either having my son 3-D print or machine me thin cover plates (delete plates if you will) to cover the mounting points.
-
I got too "down" watching all the sad news in Las Vegas and went out and just dove into the Pinto roof. The tightest Vise Grip did nothing but eventually spin on the pin. Therefore they are not twisting off.
I then broke out one of my favorite tools, an angle grinder with the thin cut-off disc. I actually rarely use them to cut things off but rather they make nice grinding discs that don't chatter. In this case I used the thin edge on the pin moving vertically downward GENTLY. It went very well.
-
It went very well.
I'm glad to hear that!
Dwayne :)
-
Harbor freight sells a 12v dremel like tool that accepts the really thin (like .025 thick) disks. They cut steel pretty slowly but do a great job and are easy to control.