Afternoon project? 1973+ bumper reinforcment removal for weight reduction...worth it?

MRGTX said
I'm wondering if you guys have a trick for this:

My bumper has never been off of the car. It turns out that each of the bumper bolts, despite being soaked in penetrating oil, are being a pain in the arse. As you guys know, the head of the bolt is chrome, round and smooth but it sits in a square opening in the bumper which holds the bolt in place allowing you to tighten/loosen the nut. Cracking the nut loose is not a problem but once you back it off past the depth of the square portion of the bolt head, the bolt is free to wiggle around.

Normally, you could just push the bolt with a spare finger to hold it in place in the bumper and spin the nut by hand but when you have some rust on the threads, the required torque makes that impossible.

I got one loose by clamping the end of the bolt with vice grips but it left teeth marks in the bolt...and it's pretty tricky to get a good enough bite on them anyway...so that's not a good solution.

Any other ideas on how to get them off?

A wire wheel on a drill and before you try to loosen the nut and clean the threads up as much as you can.
Then some lube and remove them.
Once you get the nut turning it should hit the clean part of the threads before the square clears the bumper hole.

If that doesn't do it I use a nut splitter.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_...MIv4yN24yQ6AIVDfDACh37fwuVEAQYBCABEgLdSfD_BwE