For the past two days I have been trying to remove the carriage bolts in order to get the bed off of the frame. For about a month I sprayed the bolts with liquid wrench every week to no avail. I then attempted to drill out one of the bolts but dinged up the bed a little around the bolt. I don't really want to do this to all of them. I attempted a nut cracker today, but found it near impossible to get any leverage in the tight quarters.
Additionaly, the nuts have the flare on one side, like a built in washer (I'm sure there is a name for this, Bueller, Bueller?)

so I think it would be pretty tough to break them loose. I read in the archives about grinding them off. Is this method safe for the bed? I don't want to ding it up and make more work for myself. Any other ideas short of a torch?

 

Use a torch, not to cut but to heat up the NUT cherry red. Then take cold water and douse it. You wont hurt anything, and heat is our friend.

 

Been there....
I took a 4" grinder and carefully shaved the ~head~ of the bolt down until I was nearly at the shaft of the bolt. I took a heavy hammer and a punch to the center of the bolt and the job was done. Because I only cut the head of the bolt, the paint in the bed wasn't affected. You might want to lay something down to catch the hot grinder dust if your paint is super nice.

 

I'm also going with the grinder method. Although, my bed is being replaced so I'm not as concerned about messing up the inside of the bed. If you're careful, you should be able to remove the head without causing much damage to the rest of the bed.

Then when I put my new bed on, I have purchased regular bolts with a head on them so I can put a wrench on them in the future.

 

Put Anti-Seize on the bolts when you put them back in.

Did you try the Candle Trick listed in the Garage Forum?

 

I simpley cut the flange off the bolt heads with a 4 1/2 grinder and drove them out Worked good for me.

 

I like using the heat and quench method,cuz then you still have a carrage bolt. I have done the grindy thing to, works ok, just a mess. Wear safety glasses..

 

Impact Wrench? Are they really rusted in there? Or are they just stuck? If they are rusted/ and that they are in is not super nice, I would grind them off... and if you dont have an angle grinder, I have used a dremel tool with about 10 cuting disks, be very carefull with them tho, if you force them they shatter into 1000 pieces and can sting if they hit you and can take out your eye if you dont wear safe't'glasses. Good Luck

 

Probably for the price of 10 dremel cutting disks you could almost buy an angle grinder. I think I paid 10 bucks for mine at a cheapo tool sale.

 

Thats true.... But I also lived out in the middle of nowhere when I did that.... And it was not bed bolts, it was a roll bar mounted in the back of a Toy. It took almost 4 hrs to get out.... And that was because the person who installed it drilled round holes and put in a bolt that spun in the hole, so it was impossible to get out... Heat works good if it is just locked up and you dont have the best paint in the world, but if it is really rusted use a ton of liquid wrench and an impact wrench, if you dont have one... Grind away (saftey glasses). Good luck.

 

It took one heck of a lot of drilling, but she's free. The only major ding is where someone had spot welded one of the carriage bolts to the bed. I had to chisel that sucker out.

My method was to simply drill a large hole in the center of the head. Once I was below the bed, depth wise, I used a smaller bit to drill in at an angle. Working my way around the bolt it would eventually bust loose from the head.

Thanks for the ideas fellas.