I know what you mean about broken bolts. When I did my top end overhaul, I held my breath taking out the cyl head bolts (13 bolts per cyl head) they would not budge with an 18” 1/2” drive ratchet. So I pulled out my DeWalt 18V impact gun and cranked on them and they all came out. I didn’t break one bolt on that project and that’s an engine used in salt water 18 years.
Suggestion:
If you decide to take the exhaust apart warm the engine up first, carefully drain the manifolds (hot water!) then use an impact gun to loosen the bolts. The heat and hammering of the impact helps vs cold engine and constant pull with a ratchet. Always drain before breaking loose the elbows.
Then when replacing them you can use marine anti seize on the bolts and the newer style VP gaskets and their recommended sealer. If you need to replace the exhaust you can use Barr aftermarket instead of Volvo OE, much cheaper and good quality.
I know what you mean about wives and old boats in the driveway. Mine feels the same lol! But, she realizes it helped me keep my sanity during the summer of Covid just like the in ground pool did (her idea, could have bought 2 boats for what we spent on that project)!
PS I reconfigured the rear seating in this boat to make maintenance easier, replaced that big heavy bench seat with 2 smaller 36” wide pontoon benches. I cut the wood bulkhead in half vertically and installed a take apart hinge to allow it to open like a door. Much easier! Did this about 15 years ago...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qcrv9e5b579ub ... l.JPG?dl=0In this pic you can see the 2 benches, what I do is lift out the top cushions, then I have rope handles I made up to lift out the bottom sections (usually only have to lift out the port side seat). Then the wood bulkhead behind them is cut in half vertically, I unscrew it from the divider panel in the engine compartment and just lift it out. Then I can get in and do most of what I have to do, for oil changes and winterizing etc. For bigger jobs it all comes out. This made the boat easier to service but kept the seating and storage below the seat bottoms.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pz3pzuz8kuvm ... s.jpg?dl=0this shows how I made the seats and bulkheads easier to remove, the small dividers are secured with bolts and wing nuts, the large bulkhead has a hinge in the middle, that can open like a door and be lifted off, or the whole thing can be removed. The seats are basically a press fit, I had to cut the wood shelf under the coaming panel for them to fit, they just drop into place. Much lighter than what F/W had there originally. The way I use the boat now, I am usually the only one on it, I might eventually get rid of the seats altogether and attach a pair of flip up seats on the front side of those bulkheads but I like the storage underneath so I kept them.
I agree conventional consumer market boats are horrible to work on. The new ones are even worse with the walk through taking away 1/4th of the engine compartment width making a starter change a horror show (they mostly put them on the same side with the starter, if they actually looked at a GM marine inboard they'd have put it on the OTHER side!) and non-removable fiberglass all round the engine.