One frozen lug nut can ruin your whole day

[Farace]

Before I can take my Spider out of winter hibernation and put her back on the road, she needs new tires. Can't drive down to the tire shop because one wheel is dead flat and won't hold air, meaning I have to take off the wheels and bring them to the shop. And that one wheel with the flat tire has a frozen lug nut; trying to remove it turns the whole lug bolt. (I've actually known about this for a while and have put off dealing with it, but I can't put it off any longer, now that the tire is flat.)

Slightly complicating things is the fact that it's an alloy wheel and the lugs are sunk down in a well, so I don't have any access to the sides, so cutting isn't an option. I've had it soaking in PB Blaster overnight, and will try again, but I'm starting to think I'm going to have to drill out the lug bolt. (I do have a replacement bolt and nut.) But if anyone has any ideas before breaking out the drill, I'd love to hear them.

Oh, and I know the question will come up, so 1) yes, it's reverse threaded, and 2) I'm turning the right direction.

Edit: I should probably mention it's a rear wheel, so the parking brakes and hub are in the way of accessing the rear of the lugs.

Thanks,

[JoeCab]

I would try heating the lug nut with a torch. You'll have to devise some sort of foil shield to keep the heat away from the wheel and only on the lug nut. I would try several heating and cooling cycles to weaken the corrosion bonds inside the lug nut.

Then, once you've applied heat treatment try to spin it off with an impact wrench.

[Farace]

Thanks, Joe, I had considered a torch, but there's not a lot of room around this particular nut.

OTOH, since I first posted, I learned that, unbeknownst to me, my dad had an air impact wrench. It took a lot of impacting, but the nut eventually came off. Once the nut was off, I was able to remove the rotor/drums and get to the hub. I took one side of one emergency brake spring off and removed the adjuster, which gave me enough room to pound the old lug out and insert its replacement. I didn't have enough washers to put over the stud to give the lug nut something to press against (I used an old lug nut, flat side facing the hub, to pull the new stud into place), so I used two or three box wrenches over the stud to take up the space. Hopefully my problem is now solved. Note to self: Anti-seize is your friend.