Drilling holes in frame . . .

[SenorCole86]

Hey guys. I just picked up my new exhaust today and I'm having trouble getting it into the Jeep. There's planty of room for it, but I just can't get it in there without dropping the skid plate. Well, I went to do that, and I found that there are only four bolts holding the thing up instead of the usual six. The holes where the missing two bolts would go are rusted so bad, there's no way I can get a bolt in there. I started taking off one of the bolts to find it had been crossthreaded and stripped pretty bad. Question is : is it alright to drill a small hole or two in the side of my frame, just big enough for a wrench to fit through so I can put some more bolts to hold the skid plate up? Will this endanger the integrity of my frame? Thanks guys, any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Adios.

 

[sjo426]

Did you think about heli-coils or drilling and tapping a size bigger?

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Did you think about heli-coils or drilling and tapping a size bigger?

X2. I think that would be much easier, and there wouldn't be an issue with weakening your frame.

 

[SenorCole86]

Yeah, sorry guys, don't know why I didn't think about that first. I did that and it worked out just fine. Thanks a lot.