A very cautionary tale of not fixing a car as today didn't go to plan with the front suspension swap.
All the nuts and bolts had been soaked in penetrating oil and came free easily, except the droplinks which needed a nut splitter to remove, but i was expecting that. The problem came when removing the pinch bolts. Both of the nuts loose after a quick touch with the torque wrench and both bolts were turning if a little tight. A little tap on the top one and it partly came out. A little tap on the bottom one and it also started to move, but the bottom one now refused to budge, wouldn’t go back in or come out and it looked like; as it rotated with the torque wrench it was bent (I knew the strut had been out before so assumed that was the case).
So here is where i made the wrong decision assuming the bend was what was stopping it coming out i cut the threaded end off and tried to drift it out… nothing happening. Big hammer and proper sized drift and not a thing. So put the torque wrench back on the bolt and instead of it turning; the head of the bolt sheered off! So i now have the none threaded part of the bolt stuck in the hub
Fortunately i was able to get the shock in as the sheared end is also basically flush and drop link is correctly in place, but only one pinch bolt is there and noting is getting the bottom one out. And the added bonus it would seem is that the flexible brake hose was so brittle in moving it, it’s cracked. So I’m going to have to wait until after Easter and see if i can get it transported to a garage and see if the hub is salvageable. What started as a leaking shock and a corroded spring swap (which I've done many times on other cars I’ve owned) has ended up a bit of a disaster, so I’ve left the other side as if one side has seized there’s a good chance the other one could have. Hopefully i can move the car sufficiently that a recovery truck will be able to get to it without causing more damage