so... i spent all week end pounding on that thing. I've tried everything. Impact, PBB, extractors, vice grips, torch, air-chissel.
I've managed to get 3 off. (2 in front, 1 in back) and luckily i've gotten the top 2 on both. However, i've also managed to badly round out the remaining 3.

they're just welded on there good... i'm heating them till they're red-hot, hammering on them, torque. but nothing seems to work.

I guess it's time to cut them? I can't figure out the best way to do this. the air-hammer and hacksaw don't seem to be doing the trick.
angle grinder?

Honda wants to charge $15 each for the OEM bolts which is insanity. I'm assuming I can just use home depot hardware?
thanks all!

 

I recently did this job. I had to cut off the nuts flush. Beware my angle grinder would not fit to reachthe top bolt so I had to use my dinky dremel to get to those. From there, I still had to use a torch to loosen up the bonds. So once I had them all cut flush, I used a pry bar in between the exhaust and cat. Any where where there seemed to be connection I used the torch and continued working on it with a pry bar and hammer.

Good luck and be patient. It will come off just takes a bit of persistence. In terms of hardware, I just went to the hardware store and picked up 6 stainless bolts and nuts (maybe spent 8 bucks).

 

what a pain, huh? thanks! i really hate making sparks fly under there because i'm a huge wuss and they hurt but here we are!