Man. Whay on Earth would thay have made it this way? It's almost like a booby trap from he factory or something

The circles are kind of flat mushroom head ends of bolts that go through the fenders and are there so the bolts wont pull through the metal strap. The trap is part of what holds the battery tray to the fender well.

Those nuts and bolts are so rusted, when I try to turn the nut with a wrench the whole.bolt just turns.

As you can see the other end of the bolt is a circle and there is no way to hold on to a mother fv!*#$%ng circle.

Taking ideas. It's pretty wet so wondering if there is another quick and dirty way to get it off that is not tack welding it. Of course being one man, itI could not reach that far around to hld a screwdriver if for example I slotted that big botton head end end like flathead screw.

Is there something better I can piut this back together with when I do finally get this messs off there?

 

I fought those some time ago when I replaced my fender. The round heads are pressed-in studs that are welded/bonded to the strap. You removed the nuts on the underside of the fender to remove them. If those studs are spinning (which isn't normal, unless they're really rusty/corroded), you will need to have someone hold the stud/round end with some Knipex water pump pliers and someone on the underside to remove the nuts. Be sure to spray those nuts with penetrating oil/PB Blaster and let it sit awhile before trying to loosen them, unless you have an induction heater to heat those nuts to loosen the rust so they will come off. Another thought is to cut a slit in the round stud side with a 3" cutoff wheel and use a flat head screwdriver to hold it in place while someone removes the nuts from the underside.

 

I could not get a set of vice grips to get a good bite on there.

Those Knipex look sweet. If you could get a bite on there, it's still gonna be kinda fiddly trying to hold some pliers down in that recess in the battery tray.

A screwdriver slot would be great if there were someone else around. darn it. So quick and simple.

I'll probably just see if I can get it cleaned up and dried out and try tacking it, then pb'ing and wd'ing the heck out of it before i try it.

 

The jaws on Vise-Grip pliers are much softer than the Knipex, so Knipex grip pretty tight. Cutting a slot in those round heads would likely be the best bet if you have a 2nd person. Short of that, welds on the round ends to stop them from spinning should do the job..

Luckily, this is one of those jobs that you typically only have to endure once...

 

Drill them out. That's what I had to do......

 

What did you replace it with? I haven't found the right keyword to find new replacement parts. Since I'm not a fabricator, my plan was to polish this turd and resinstall it.

 

OK duh. Just went out there and measured it.

There is plenty of room for regular off the shelf hex head bolts on top of nice wide washers to replace that thing.

I can just drill them out and put bolts in there. Don't know why I wanted to try make it harder than it needs to be.

 

I've recently removed a couple of 2nd Gen batt trays and I agree they're a bit over-engineered.

What I find disappointing is that they went to all the work to make it relatively heavy duty but then used plastic. The clip nuts often tear/break the tray where they install. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link....

 

I just used a couple hex-head bolts, and another warm body to help me install them.