My 97 LX has a hole in its midpipe where a hanger tore off. I've tried Quiksteel, JB Stik, etc, but it always pops off after awhile. Rather than pay $50 to have a shop patch it, I figure I might as well buy a whole new midpipe for $80 and put it on myself.
That does bring me to a problem here - the cat-end flanges are pretty rusty on the current pipe. I think should be able to blast the bolts off with my Milwaukee or hacksaw as needed, but when that finally comes off, might I have any surfacing problems in terms of getting the original frontside flange to mate with the flange on the new midpipe well? I've never worked with exhaust myself so I have no idea how thick the gaskets are (i.e. what kind of a surface tolerance I'd need).

Short version- can I remove a midpipe that's been on a car for 180,000 miles and put on a new one without too much filing or hacking, or am I begging for a headache?

 

it's not that bad...

I helped my friend do his on his 94 EX and the nuts holding the cat to the exhaust was very rusted. He tried to get them off but rounded them. So we dropped the exhaust by separating the manifold from the downpipe and pulled the exhaust out to get better access to the nuts. I grabbed my bolt-out kit from Craftsman and found the size that fit the best and twisted it on there. Using a socket and a ratchet on the special tool I was able to get all the nuts off without damage to the studs. So then we went to Honda real fast and picked up new nuts and were all set.

this is the set I have, though I think you can buy individual pieces.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_1...t+out