Hi Peter,

If you're sure you're not going to reuse the shock, use a pipe wrench on
the polished shaft near the top, just below the bump stop. The great
thing about a pipe wrench is the more it rotates, the tighter it grabs. 
Carefully rotate with a wrench on the top nut in a loosening direction
until the pipe wrench handle is against the chassis, then apply more
force.

Gregory Smith
'88 Vanagon GL

Smith Design Studio
Small Building Company
Olympia, WA
360-239-0429
gregoryfsmith.com

Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 14:57:52 -0600
From: Peter Lapp <carrothospital@GOOGLEMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Shocks again

Thanks everyone for the replies. Whatever kind is in there(from the PO),
it
has the flat end tip, with no hexslot.
 I put the vice grips on the end of the rod where it has the flat ends
and
tried to hold it while turning a wrench on the nut. I think I eventually
started stripping away that top part with the vice grips.
As far as I can tell, there's not enough space to use an impact driver
in
there, but maybe a nut splitter will get the job done.
I'll try out some of the advice and see what happens.
Thanks!