50% off for rewards members at the Pick n Pull this weekend. I found a set of American Racing wheels that I'd like to get. They usually don't put vehicles in the yard with wheels, but these had lug locks. My photo doesn't show it well but they're tapered. I was able to turn three of them with my beefiest vise grips, using a big channel lock to close the vise grips
hard. The fourth is a tougher nut to crack; I bent my beefiest Vise Grip brand vise grips using a pipe on the handle to try to close them tighter. Ran out of time and tools...going back in the morning.
They're not the hardest steel around. My vise grips dug in and shaved off some steel rather than losing their teeth.
Any thoughts?
I'm gonna bring:
- Pipe wrench
- Cordless drills (including right angle drill) with lots of batteries and lots of 1/8" titanium and cobalt drill bits and a couple sets of titanium bits
- Cold chisels
- More vise grips and cheater pipes
-
Gimmick-grip socket
- BFH and large deep sockets to hammer on
Gonna try the pipe wrench first, then maybe the gimmick socket, then I'll start putting as many 1/8" holes in it as I can, then try pipe wrench/gimmick socket/vise grips again, then cold chisel.
1/8" bits (of which I have many, and they're very good, and tough) should sit inside the key pattern nicely and I should be able to cross them in different directions, and also the right angle drill should be able to get a few holes into the circumference where the regular drill can't. Once it's swiss-cheesed, a cold chisel should break it into pieces, and cranking down the vise grips might squeeze flats into it.
Or I could go to Auto Zone and invest in a locking lug nut remover. At the price I'll pay for these wheels it would be a good investment. However, it requires an impact wrench, which will not be an option at the junkyard.
I wish I had a sufficiently large rounded bolt remover, but my set doesn't include any that big.