In my blog post about my Chevy’s fluid change, I changed the front differential fluid. This required me to remove a skid plate. I somehow stripped the threads to the frame where the skid plate mounted on the front left corner. I welded the hole over, and tapped new threads. The whole job took me about 20 minutes, and I only used a cheap $70 flux welder from Harbor Freight. I did zero preparation, such as cleaning the surface I was welding. However, the only thing my weld is holding is one corner of a skid plate, in which there are three other corners, so I’m unconcerned about the quality of the weld. This was also the first time I’ve welded anything that had actual function. I’ve done a tiny bit of welding for practice, but my welds were never that good. It was nice to actually apply what skills I had to something functional.
The hole where the bolt threaded into. The plate is directly below it.
The hole welded through. I didn’t do this in one clean pass because the frame had oil on it, and the oil caught fire a few times, so I had to stop to blow it out. If I was doing this all over again, I would have cleaned the area with some degreaser. The fire wasn’t really ever a safety issue though. Also, like I said above, my welding skills are entry level. However, considering that I’m just filling in a hole that’s going to get drilled through again, I’m not really concerned about the quality of the weld.
After welding the area, I took an angle grinder, and flattened the surface down. This will make it easier to drill through.
I drilled a hole, and tapped new threads. The thread size is a M10 with a 1.5 pitch. When I was a mechanic, I tapped new threads probably hundreds of times, so I’m pretty decent at making new threads. The key is to make sure you’re making little cuts, and spinning backwards more often than you’re spinning it forwards.
The bolt is reinstalled with the skid plate. I applied some red threadlocker, and the chances of that bolt falling out are almost zero. I’m pleased with this repair, and there’s two more threads I need to repair for the forward engine splash guard.