2001 Cherokee Rear Shocks Options

[kenic]

New here... Need to replace the rear shocks (or struts?). Has leaf springs so I don't think it will be too hard, but rusted so bad the bolt heads won't even fit in a socket. Has unibody and wanted to sand that and paint before I get new ones in there.
If I can get 3 (of 4) bolts loose do you think I could take the last one to a shop for them to drill and tap? Or will they want to do the whole job?
Trying to do myself but that one bolt is bad and I wanted to clean up the rust while the bolts are out... Not too bad but I don't want the unibody to go bad so I'd like to spray it now... I hate unibodies... But it's what I got.

Any help apriciated... Thanks.

[2000cherokeeguy]

have you tried putting some heat on it?

[eightyfivecj]

If the heat doesn't work and the bolt does break you can just drill out the remaining bolt and use a nut and washer above to hold the bolt in place. I did this using a wrench and taped the nut, washer, lock nut combo and has worked no problem. You might want to look into the bar pin eliminator kit that just bolts up into the mounts and then you don't have to have the pin on the upper shock and you won't have to deal with the issue again. I used stainless bolts just incase I had to mess with them again.