So I left the penetrating oil on for about 2 hours and decided to go back out and try again.
It was not easy, but I was able to get all 4 bolts out, with only 1 breaking but falling out without causing any issues.
I’m going to wait until getting the rest of the exhaust system completely disassembled before I consider the task complete, but hopefully, with some penetrating oil and some time, they’ll all come off like this or better.
I’m going to need to make careful measurements of all this exhaust bolt/nut hardware and buy new. Hopefully I can find it all in a zinc-coated or stainless steel. I was rather shocked not to find any washers on the muffler bolts though. It is rare to find a bolt without a washer on these cars.
So there you have it. An original VW Type 1 FI muffler and damn if it is not a solid piece of equipment. This thing is a beast of metal. I mistakenly bought an aftermarket replacement in 2017 when I still did not fully understand how often shitty aftermarket VW parts are and I just can’t see not having this blasted, the flange surfaces cleaned up, and then having it ceramic powder coated.
Now whoever removed the EGR filter from the 3/4 side just cut it then crimped it so there’s still part of the extension pipe still attached there. There’s also the matter of the tailpipe clamp. The tail pipe has quite a dent in the bottom, no doubt made worse ever time I scrape going in and out of our steep driveway. I do have another tailpipe and I have no real probably treating that as a replaceable part since I know it will get damaged on our driveway. Hopefully all of these bits come off without too much difficulty.
I am just blown away at the quality that went into this muffler. The metal and those pipes that connect to the heat exchangers is just so heavy and thick.
It will be a privilege to restore and maintain this.