Hey all. First post and in kind of a stump. My muffler broke/rusted off right before the connection to the midpipe. when i went to wrench the broken piece of muffler-pipe off of the old midpipe, the spring-loaded bolts were seized and snapped in half. the nuts on the stock mid pipe seem to be welded on from factory and mine now had the other half of the bolt seized inside. so i bought a new midpipe and muffler (probably going to regret it) from autozone. the new midpipe and muffler didnt come with any new hardware, of course. The new midpipe also didnt come with nuts welded on to attach new spring-loaded bolts.

heres my question...would i be ok using just a regular nut,bolt,washer,flexible gasket combo to connect the muffler to the midpipe or would that squash the gasket too much meaning i would indeed need the springs?

any info is much appreciated