The Rusty Nut Bible

The job is dead in the water - one bolt seized solid. You thought you'd finish in a day, but this has occupied your entire afternoon. You're cold, tired, bruised and frustrated.

For me, it was a seized brake on my wife's hatchback. We didn't have the money for a garage bill, let alone a tow truck to take it there. I had to fix it, or sell at a loss. Then I'd have to face the second-hand car market and open a fresh can of worms.
Road level components have a harsh life. Constantly caked with dust, mud, grit and road salt while exposed to water and enormous temperature changes.

I'd bought a longer spanner (wrench), but I couldn't use the ring end because it fouled on other parts. All I'd done with the open crescent was remove 4 of the 6 corners from the bolt head. I had one chance left... No pressure.

It was a toss-up between the pub and the Internet. Fortunately for me, I chose Internet.

Use a long lever and a heavy friend: been there, and didn't need the friend!
Heat was a non-starter because of brake pipes and ABS wires.
Use an impact wrench? There was no room for a socket.

Several searches later, several pages down, I found an interesting answer, and it worked. That got me thinking. I'd written a couple of books in crowded genres, and sales had been poor. Was there a book of tips, tricks and tools to free nuts, bolts and screws? There was not. So I wrote this one.

The research was an absolute joy. New tool designs reduce the chance of damage to nuts, bolt heads and screws. If things go wrong, there are clever tools to engage rounded off or gouged out heads. There are even special tools and techniques to extract sheared shafts and repair damaged threads. Finally, were myths to bust, poor advice to filter out, and misunderstandings to clarify. This was all music to the ears of a non-fiction writer.

So it's all in here, organised for quick reference. It opens with a process which works in order of increasing aggression to lessen risk to you and whatever you're fixing. Reuse more original, possibly rare or even irreplaceable, parts and panels. Avoid delays waiting for replacement parts and save some money into the bargain.

What was it that freed the bolt from my wife's car? I won't be cruel and tell you to buy my book to find out. It was a freeze spray. They shrink the fastener, cracking the rust. This creates a sliver of space for the lubricant in the spray to seep into. I didn't know such a thing existed until adversity taught me.

I wish you luck fixing whatever brought you here - happy trails!

Chas Newport, Somerset, UK. Autumn 2021