Removing Tang Bolts

[Greg Rodgers]

Greetings,

I have a 28 year old Le Fiell aluminum mast on my Peterson 44. The SS tang bolts are frozen into the mast by corrosion. The bolt passes through an aluminum compression tube. There are "ears" welded onto each side of the mast (someone PLEASE correct my terminolgy) to increase the wall thickness. I've tried heat with a propane torch and PB Blaster penetrant with no success. I've also tried to put a deep socket the same diameter as the compression tube over the end of the bolt to pound out the tube and bolt but have only mashed in the end of the tube a bit. I don't want to go with the Big Bang solution any further than that. There is no movement of the tube or bolt whatsoever. Any suggestions?

Thank you,

Greg Rodgers