Armor removal and armor screws

[Mrs Vampire]

The results of my latest attempts at unscrewing the bolts.

I have managed to get all but ten of the large bolts out and have made good progress on the smaller ones.

I have made some , for me, startling discoveries. The penetrants I have use made virtually no penetration apart form some very slight surface intrusion.

All my theories about penetrants are out the window. My primary penetrant was WD-40 with Methyl Salicylate added to it. I have used methyl Salicylate straight, RP-7 , CRC, Reducteur H-72 and Wurst Rost Off plus. Not one of these made any penetration worth speaking of. Once I had the screws out a sixteenth they aided in further extraction but they played no part at all in helping with initial release.

I will experiment with phosphoric acid and see if that gets in. The next attempt will be to heat and cool using penetrant along the way .

The best helper yet has been a small rivet gun with a chisel end , my 1/2 inch drive rattle gun and the long handled T bar with my home made drag link.

The small rivet gun is not a big hitter but has a very high cycle. I tried my big hitter Rivet gun with a lower cycle rate without success. Likewise my 3/4 rattle gun is to hard to hold in place and hits to hard to control.

Photos are of extracted screws showing how nearly new some are , how little rust and how crummy the penetration...they are all dry.
Also a heap of removed bolts...just because I am so pleased to have them out... the very expensive penetrant that is useless the el-cheepo rivet gun that did the best work and the head of a screw showing the slight damage done in removing them.

Not one of these screws would move using a drag link with a four foot extension bar ( it broke the drag link) or using either rattle gun the little rivet gun moved them in seconds.

I checked the parts book and finally found the tool originally designated for Armour removal...it was a 1/2 inch drive drag link socket