Replacing rear shocks with rusted in place upper mount bolt

This is my first post and I took pictures of what I came up with, but don't know how to upload them from my OneDrive file - Maybe someone could advise me? Anyway, I'll describe what I came up with below:

First off, I'm a 76 yr. old wrench-turner with BIG hands & fingers! I'm working on an inherited '02 Runner that lived up North for many years and has a lot of rust on the entire undercarriage. I could not get to the upper rear shock bolts, and besides, they were firmly rusted in place anyway, So, I cut the floor area on each side with a 3 inch hole saw to gain access from the top just aft of the outer rear seat mounts. After getting thru the main panel, there was an second panel below-I used a 2.75 inch hole saw to get thru that without binding against the upper hole... Voila! Perfect open access to the mount bolt and all the rust & road crap that surrounded it! Cleaned up the area & sprayed rust reformer & truck bed liner for protection. Replaced the top panel (only) with sealant & foil insulation tape.

Each side took less than 30 min. to complete-Not bad for an old guy!

 

Wow! That’s got to be a world record!!!

 

I think everyone dreams about cutting some access holes for it.

That and for the Fuel Tank pump and valve.

 

Welcome to the forum John.