how to deal with a stripped fender bolt

[jeremywrags]

Hi All,

Just bought my first OLD pickup. A 1959 Apache Fleetside. I'll get pics up as soon as I pickup the pickup...

Anyway, most of the sheetmetal work has been done except a small hole in the passenger floor and the passenger rocker. The rocker is there but the PO has not welded it up yet because there is a stripped bolt in the fender that prevented him from bolting it up. He want's to make sure all lines up before welding in the rocker. Seem reasonable.

So he showed me the stripped bolt and it seems that it's an integral part of the fender, he started to try to cut it out so he could weld in a new one but abandoned that idea as it seemed it would do more harm than good.

His next option was to just tap the threads to a larger size, again seems reasonable and path of least resistance...

So my question to those with much more experience than myself. How did\would you deal with a stripped fender bolt?

Thanks