I drill mine out to avoid caving the tub in with the hammer. If you are REAL careful you can just drill down to the end of the head and take a pammer and screw driver and pop the head off. After you've removed all the screws you can remove the door and there should be enough room to take a pair of vice-grips to the screw shafts to remove the rest.

I don't know what the thread pattern is on them. I took the screw shaft to the local boating hardware store and asked for stainless hex screws. They cost about $6.00 for both front doors but are nice and easy to remove.

However, after a summer of bolting and unbolting I'm beginning to lean towards cutting the hinges...

AARRRRRRRG! 1987 Red JX 'vert, 4.5 BREEZE SPOA, SJ410 T-case (not sure how I like it), 29 Super Swampers (31 BFG M/T knock offs - eventually) AARRRRRRRG!

 

You can cut the hinges while they are on. But I would use a dremal to do it. Use duct tape and tape a sheild around the hinge so if you slip it will hit the sheild. There are a few different posts on door removal you can search for also.

I Work to Wheel, because I wheel, I work.
http://www.geocities.com/zuk_tonka/zuk.html

 

I have a couple rust holes around the hinges that I want to fix so unfortunately the doors have to come off.

Thanks

Duck tape is like the force, it has a dark side, a light side and it holds the universe together.

 

Do a search or look a few posts back, there was a good post called "hinge screws" or somthing. There was lots of good ideas to get the damn phillips head screws out there. What i do is take a good chissel and a large hammer. Put the chissel on an angle on the edge of the head of the screw, then hammer away. It should dig in, but if it just slips off, dont put it at an angle, just straight to make the notch then do it at an angle, this works really well and i suceed every time. all you need is it to break it free then you can finish it with a screwdriver or whateverr. Impact drivers havent worked too well for me. If the heads arent stipped, and you got a 3/8" air impact, you could use the #3bit and the 3/8" adaptor for your impact driver on your air impact and try to get it off that way. I do that somtimes and it always works well becuse you can put a lot of Force against the head so it wont stip and all you goto do about turning it is hit the button. You shouldnt have to cut them off. I dont know what the thread is but if you take any bolt with a 12mm head from your zuk to the hardware store it will be the same as the hinge bolt.

 

You can take a file and file 2 flats on either side of the
bolt. Then take a big fairly new vise grip and clip it onto the bolt straight on(90 deg from the body) stick a large screwdriver into the jaw of the vise grip and twist, it should pop free. Other than that heat the snot out of it.
Good luck

Glenn
87' Zook Spoa,M/L 33's, 4.16 tcase,4.62 gears Camo,Header,2"exhuast, Cam.
Lockers, 8klb winch, -Wildweasel2 NE4WI- club http://www.cs.umass.edu/~glenn/personal.html

 

Another way is to use a Dremel and cut a groove across the head of the screw. Then after applying heat to the screw head, use a BIG regular screwdriver to get them out. Heat is the secret, you have to get the screw hot enough to melt the locktite on the threads.

Larry Robertson
88.5 Samurai-Under construction-always
90 Samurai-Under construction-always
97 Suzuki Sidekick Sport-Wife's ride
Way too much horsepower is barely enough!

 

Some of the screws on mine came out easily and some didn't. Some were even so difficult that they twisted Craftsman size 3 phillip bits.

What I did to remove the stubborn ones was take a drill that was slightly smaller than the bolt size. I then drilled down just far enough into the head that it releived some of the pressure on the head. Then I took a flathead screwdriver and put it into the drilled out head and turned it. Some of them were loosened up enough from the drilling that it came out that way. Others I then tapped the head off and removed the bolt left over by hand (or vice grips if it happened to be rusted).

I can't remember the exact specifics of the bolts, but the package on the ones I got from Orchard Supply were M8 1.25 in length.

Once you have one of the bolts out just take it in and find a metric size 8 that is the correct length. I went with allen keyed bolts.

Mark
1986 Suzuki Samurai soft-top
1999 Toyota Tacoma
http://members.home.net/marvinmartian

 

thanks for the hell I'll be sure to post some pics when the resto work is complete or close to it...

Duck tape is like the force, it has a dark side, a light side and it holds the universe together.

 

thanks for the hell I'll be sure to post some pics when the resto work is complete or close to it...

Duck tape is like the force, it has a dark side, a light side and it holds the universe together.

 

thanks for the hell I'll be sure to post some pics when the resto work is complete or close to it...

Hey I was just tring to give you Help not Hell. LOL/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

I Work to Wheel, because I wheel, I work.
http://www.geocities.com/zuk_tonka/zuk.html

 

I'm shamelessly copying my own old post here:
I just finished very heavy battle with those button_head bolts - I won /wwwthreads_images/icons/laugh.gif. I've managed to remove ALL of them (including the rear gate) breaking off only two of them, but a quick drilling and Dremel'ing <sp?> fix that too.

Then I've chopped the top portion of the front door hinges in order to be able to take them off (doors) quickly and replace with my half-doors which I've made last week. That along with the snap-in door limiting belts worked marvelously , so now I can enjoy ride with a really big side view /wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif, oh yeah baby.

FYI, from the practical point: DON'T even think of taking on those bolts without a really good quality #3 Philips bit that fits in your ratchet handle. Then park the vehicle parallel to a wall or something like that in such a distance that you can get in between and put a REALLY big pressure on the ratchet with your body while trying to rotate the handle. In 99% of cases after a loud SNAP!!! the bolt will come loose without shredding itself to metal dust.
If that fails, well it's time for some drilling.

I replaced them bolts with a descent (Allan key'ed) stainless steel hardware - here's the number:
SS Button Head M8x20mm bolt, SPAENAUR# 373-326

And here's the OEM Suzuki# if someone needs it: 09125-08015 (three times more $$ than above.....)

-marker

 

I recently did this myself in order to mount some snazzy brackets to relocate the mirrors. My solution was to take the dremel tool with some HD cutting disks and cut off a flat spot on each side of the head of the screw, similar to what wildweasel suggested doing with a file. Then I took a crappy big pair of ersatz visegrips and clamped them right on there, parallel to the body surface. All I had to do was turn it to break the thread sealer, then use a regular phillips screwdriver and fingers to take them out the rest of the way.


~daxe

 

I don't understand why everyone makes this so complicated. Just use the chisel. Put a notch in the edge of the screwhead at about 10 oclock the use the chisel to work the bolt around until it come loose. should take every bit of 5 mins to have all the bolts out.

/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gifJohn Tucker 88.5 Samurai, SPOA, 1.6 ltr, Weber carb, Removable doors, Custom front bumper,Warn M8000 winch
http://www.geocities.com/fryer_78/Cam_Moorai.html

 

I second that!!!
I tried it a while back and it works great. At one time I even made a tool to go on an air chisel that had a #3 tip and a handle on it. stick it in the screw and pull the trigger and turn slowly. The vibes alone just free the screw! Problem was the weld on my "tool" kept breaking. Hammer and chisel them now.......

DannyL

http://www.partszuki.homestead.com

 

I did my first set with the doors on. No matter how carefull you are ooops.
I used a chisel the second time. The chisel is the only way I will do it in the future.

Gary

 

>>>I don't understand why everyone makes this so complicated. Just use the chisel.


How about: I don't have a chisel.

)

~daxe

 

I never thought using a drill was complicated.

Is the the Neanderthal Samurai BBS?

AARRRRRRRG! 1987 Red JX 'vert, 4.5 BREEZE SPOA, SJ410 T-case (not sure how I like it), 29 Super Swampers (31 BFG M/T knock offs - eventually) AARRRRRRRG!