I have 3 unmolested originals. (I can barely come to the board when logged on at home without getting booted offline. Try to write something or post a picture? Forget it! Wrote this off line with my word processor, boot, and copy paste. It doesn‘t help solve problems when I can take care of whatever board business at work).

One of them came out of my current car and removed with a #4 Phillips on a 3/8 th drive. The other 3 were trashed removing them. It wasn’t a case of improper tool; instead, it was a case of the tension exceeded my ability to twist a half-inch breaker bar. The easy way to remove them is to drill them out, using a bit just a tad larger than the thread diameter. The head will fall off; then, snatch the backside with vice grips. So easy it isn’t funny, and it ain’t worth the effort applied to break them loose.

The other 2 originals are not only unmolested, but they are also virgin bolts. They are on a fender I bought in 1979 (for an outrageous price of $15) when someone trashed the fender on my other bird. Had already hammer and mudded the fender before buying the replacement fender and never got around to installing the fender.

Half of the board, including myself, got replacement bolts from John. These bolts are so close to the original that one would be hard pressed to claim that they aren’t. The point is that the total of 11 bolts in my possession--ain’t mine, but I got my chit scrapers on an 8 too--are all #4 Phillips head blots. The 11 bolts in my hands would require you to hammer a posi drive into them.

I think the big problem is that the #4 Phillips screwdriver and/or socket drive--the tool you need to remove the bolts--are in short supply in a shade tree mechanic’s toolbox.