One Week, One Bolt

One Week, One Bolt One of the four bolts that hold the rear passenger seat to the floor was missing. Normally I wouldn't be concerned, but I happen to enjoy spending time with my sons, and they'll be riding back there. Lando doesn't have airbags or ABS, so everything else needs to be dialed in. I kept calculating the odds of one of my boys getting injured in an accident, and whether a 25% decrease in mechanical connection from a missing bolt would mean life or death. I quickly decided to stop calculating and fix it correctly. Poring over parts manuals, I finally found the OEM bolt and ordered it in, since no local Toyota dealer had one and I don't know what Ace Hardware's warranty policy is on damaged teenagers. After a couple of days it arrived, and I tried to bolt it in, but the threads in the floor were stripped. So I ordered a thread chaser kit and waited for it to arrive. After a couple of days it arrived, and I tried to clean the threads, but it couldn't get enough bite on the dirty threads to line up and dig in. So I ordered a tap and waited for it to arrive. At this point I started to worry about what would happen if I cross-threaded the hole, and the cost of a Time-Sert, and which size to order, and how to use it, and what if I messed up… Analysis paralysis, fear, and guilt about not knowing what I'm doing, compounded by the fact that one bolt was holding me up. Which brings me to today. After a rough couple of days, I decided to go for it. I lined up the tap, gave it a couple of back-and-forth turns, and got a good bite. I switched to the thread chaser and got it to seat. I cleared out the chips, greased the bolt, and a quarter turn at a time torqued it down to the service-manual spec of 29 ft-lbs, expecting to strip the threads with every ratchet. It seemed to take hours, but the wrench finally clicked, and I was done. I did it, and for a second I felt like a real mechanic - what a feeling! Although, I'll have to adjust my labor rate for the market. One week for one bolt seems a bit pricey. The ups and downs make the journey, and seeing this bolt finally go in correctly brings a smile to my face. Thinking about my family sharing adventures in Lando together makes the smile even bigger. On to the next bolt…