Car has 207k miles. When purchased, the head pipes had come loose (weld) from the catalytic converter cones. Local shop welded it back up, but that caused another problem. Nobody thought to push the pipes up and into the 'cones', so now the exhaust pipe is across the engine crossmember. Starting the car produces a loud rattle, and under some conditions, the pipe will bounce against the crossmember. Unfortunately, it also lowered the overall system so that you can see it hanging where you shouldn't (yuck!).

Looks like my solution is to replace the catalytic converter. I've found new ones for about $400. I haven't found any used ones - and most salvage yards won't sell them anyway. The car has so many miles that it seems overkill to put a new converter/pipe on it. I also live where routine smog inspections require the catalytic converter.

Short of having the pipes cut/rewelded, anyone have a spare converter lying around?