The bolt that attaches my front brake hose to the body is rusted badly on my 2011 Fit. From videos I watched, the left is the bolt that unscrews and the really mangled part on the right is a nut that's attached to the hanger welded to the body. Any ideas how to get that bolt out safely? And if I mangle/cut the nut on the hanger, what should I use to replace it?

 

I would start with lots of rust penetrant spray. I like PB Blaster but everyone has a favorite. Heat is also your friend when dealing with rusty bolts, but your ability to use a torch will come down to what you're doing (i.e., can you risk damaging the hose). Brake fluid is also flammable, so you'll want to know what you're doing if you step up the "hot wrench" as my dad used to call it.

If you get the bolt to move, don't try to take it all the way off at first. Go back and forth (loose and tight) a tiny bit at a time while you keep spraying more penetrating spray, which will slowly clean the threads.

If the entire hanger is rusty, you'll have to figure out a way to hold it (maybe a big vice grip) or the torque you apply while trying to remove the bolt will pull the hanger off the car.

If you break the part, you can get another from a donor/junkyard car (maybe not in OH, where the junkyard cars will be just as rusty as yours). It might not even need to be a Fit, as this sort of part is probably shared across many models. You might even be able to order a new part from the dealership. If you can't find a used/new bracket, any half decent mechanic or fabricator should be able to make a new one. Once you have the bracket it's a relatively simple matter to grind away the rust where the bracket mounts and weld the new/used bracket in place.

 

Awesome, thanks for the quick response! (I haven't used bbcode in a while, couldn't figure out how to reply...)