Drilling out studs

[PositronicRay]

My wheel arch liner is fitted with 4 x screws and 6 X 5mm studs with plastic nuts. When I removed the liner each stud snapped.

Now I could drill some holes in the inner wing and bung a few self tappers in but I'd rather drill out the studs and put some self tappers where the studs are.

I assume these studs would just be mild steel? My drill bits (which are old and knackered) won't touch them, should I buy some std HSS drill bits or do I need something tougher?

Is their any other solution?

[Jimmyarm]

Depends how posh you want to be with the fix =)

If it was my own car and worth a bob I would cut the studs off flat and weld new ones on.

Most of our customers are skin flints so get self tappers into the metal.

As for drill bits, I use Dewalt extreme 2 iirc, were about £70 for a set and are bloody good, however, I recently learnt how to sharpen drill bits on a bench grinder and I can make pretty much any bit work. The cheaper bits just need more regular sharpening.

Plenty of videos on youtube showing you how to do it if you have a bench grinder.

[Toaster Pilot]

Cobalt from Toolstation or titanium from Screwfix (cheap jobber bits from either) will sort you out - I was drilling out M8+ bolts on my Audi A6 with those successfully albeit painfully

[PositronicRay]

Thanks chaps.

[Toaster Pilot]

Don't forget - go slow and use plenty of lube

[PositronicRay]

Toaster Pilot said:

Don't forget - go slow and use plenty of lube

It'll be a couple of days before I can get onto it, I've found a recipe for some lube. I'll substitute some old chainsaw lube for the olive oil (I can't imagine the trauma if I nick some of Mrs PR's extra virgin stuff)


"Lubrication the drill-bit must be lubricated and cooled all at the same time the best way to do this in a household situation is to make a mixture called an emulsion. This is a mix of oil and water and is used in steel cutting.For home use 2 parts water and one part olive or rape-seed oil and add a little dish washing liquid about tea-spoon full. Mix together by shaking vigorously in a discarded dish washing liquid bottle. You can use the bottle and nozzle to apply liberal amounts of the emulsion to the drill while drilling."

[honestbob]

To save yourself using too much effort start your drilling with a smaller drill,say 3.5mm. Anything bigger than this requires too much
push on the drill to get it to cut properly. Humans are puny when it comes to hand drilling steel. You are also more likely to maintain
some degree of accuracy. Open up the hole with the correct size drill later.

[PaulKemp]

Drill in to the stud then use an easy out
A hardened reverse threaded tapered thing, you can get a set of 3 cheap in Halfrauds
I used one recently to remove a manifold stud from a spare head

[Jimmyarm]

P

PaulKemp said:

Drill in to the stud then use an easy out
A hardened reverse threaded tapered thing, you can get a set of 3 cheap in Halfrauds
I used one recently to remove a manifold stud from a spare head

Good luck with that, arch liner studs aren't threaded into the inner wing