Grille bolts, whats the best way...

[Lord Warlock]

69 grille, the 4 bolts that go thru the front of the fenders to hold it in place, (two tabs on each side of grille) what is the best way to remove these from the grille assembly?  They appear to be welded studs.  All four of mine snapped due to rusted threads, so i need to replace them with new ones.  Not sure how securely attached they are, just know they don't turn, but would a torch help or do i need to cut thru the metal of the stud itself (or find the weld) I could try using a rotory tool with a cutting disk to cut it off, but trying to find out if there is a better or easier way. 
Rest of the grille is looking good and almost ready to go back in the car after several years out. 

Lord Warlock

[BlueSS454]

I drilled mine out and just put a bolt through each stud.  The ony other solution is to grind the head off and the rest of the stud will simply fall out.  Install a new longer bolt and tack weld it to the grille support (what I should have done).

[tan top]

            yeah done the same  bolted it , but really  should of welded then in 

[Lord Warlock]

  damn damn damn....now i gotta go buy a welder.... where will i put it...  was hoping i could avoid having one around, it would be too tempting to cut out the trunk floor and weld new floors in...was hoping to pay someone to do that...too much work.  what to do, what to do.....

Have the grinders and drills, if i can only find the right drillbits, i'm horrible about putting those things back where they belong.

[bill440rt]

I drilled mine out and just put a bolt through each stud.  The ony other solution is to grind the head off and the rest of the stud will simply fall out.  Install a new longer bolt and tack weld it to the grille support (what I should have done).

 

Or, if you don't have a welder, simply install a bolt retaining clip on the other side. The clip slides over the bolt & sits flush, holding the bolt in place. These are the same things holding the plastic seat spacers to the seat track studs. They're as easy as your local Home Depot.

[1hot68]

I ground the broken studs off the rest of the way, drilled a hole thru the head, then slid a stud in the hole and weled it on the top side. Viola new stud just like it was to start with.