Hey, I ordered new aftermarket front and rear bumpers for my 2001 TJ. After some frustration, mostly from dealing with rust, I have the rear bumper off and ready for the new one.

What I need now is some advice on getting the front one off. It is held in place with six, size 55 torx bolts. They have never been touched since put on way back in 2001. I have the size 55 torx socket, but those front bolts are not budging at all, and I am afraid I am going to strip the heads out, as the 55 torx socket is a little loose in the bolt head to begin with. I have thought about applying some heat to it, but the nutsert is down inside the frame and the heat would not travel down far enough to reach the nut and help free the bolt.

So, any advice on getting those bolts out? I do have a grinder, but grinding the heads off gets me nothing, as I still have to get the rest of the bolt out of the nutsert in the frame so I can bolt the new bumper up.

Soak in PB Blaster for a few days. Spray them down a few times. They will pop loose with an impact. Just take it easy. Need something to "break" the corrosion. Impact. Hammer. Etc...

I owned a Jeep YJ for over 16 years. Familiar with stubborn bolts. PB Blaster is your friend.

I deal with a lot of rusted bolts at work. I live by this stuff.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005ESIHZI/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a can of Liquidwrench that I have been using, but will look for another to use in conjunction with it. The bumpers do not arrive for a couple more days, so I will keep soaking until it needs to come off.

+1 on soak plus hammering. Just trying to wrench on it will definitely strip it out. The hammer will help by applying that same pressure incrementally however many times a minute over & over

Well, went out to try it again, and twisted the T55 Torx in two. So, I busted out the grinder and ground off all the heads. I was lucky that there was enough of the bolt left to get a broken bolt extractor tool on it and after soaking with more Liquid Wrench and WD-40, was able to get all six out.

I soaked the threads again and then took a small wire brush and got down into the nutserts and cleaned them up really well. I will use some anti-seize when putting it all back together. Ready for the bumpers to arrive now.