Two of the threaded studs came out w/ the nuts pretty much welded to them, the other two the nuts broke free w/ the studs left on the cats, and then there were the demon bolts
Those look pretty clean. If you can soak them 48 hrs prior, then again the day before you should be good.

The first demon I only soaked a couple hours prior and it put up a big fight, but got it free. The drivers side that I did the next night which was much tougher to access w/ the steering shaft to contend with was simple as it soaked for 24 hrs.

 

$275 is a little excessive. I paid $100 to get my Berk's HFC installed. Try finding a Nissan specialty shop.

 

This shop is actually. I may check with a few others and do Black Betty's suggestion of treating the bolts ahead of time.

 

Since you've got Ape as your first name you really need to tackle these yourself

 

Ok that made me laugh! I'm not quite that big any more. Plus my user name is abbreviation for Aprilia Factory (motorcycles).

 

$275 is pricey....I paid $130 in the bay area and prices here are usually high enough...

 

If you lived in so-cal I have a shop that would've done it for 100. Problem is that those stock cats on the g's tend to get stuck and they are an absolute nightmare to unbolt the driver side. Mine for example took 3 hours and at least 3 broken bolts.

 

i went to multiple shops and all said minimum $200+.
Just got the clutch replaced under (mostly) warranty and the dealer kindly swapped the cats when they dropped the exhaust for me at no charge...... so if you plan on dropping the tranny at the dealer anytime soon maybe you could do that as well?

 

No plans to drop the tranny. I'm just going to prep the bolts and try to find a less expensive shop for the installation. I have at least two muffler shops and another performance ship within two miles of my house.

 

I just did the install last weekend with a friend of mine for his car. We did it roughly in 5 hours, not really rushing. Having the extensions is really what is key. We sprayed the bolts with just PB blaster, and just kept going at it.

If you allotted a whole weekend to do it, I would go that route. I paid $100 for labor and I regret not just DIY'ing it myself. I'm in SA more often, I can give you a hand with it one day if you'd like. $275 is a lot of money for how little the performance we gain out of this mod.

 

That'd be great. I have extensions, just need to get one or three six sided 14mm Impact swivel hexes. Maybe a six sided box wrench. I looked for a six sided half moon 14mm and no one makes one.

 

Be sure to get that Harbor Freight wobble joint, that's what makes it much easier. The one area that I needed a helper was me placing the socket on the drivers side demon while my wife got the breaker bar loaded, then I was able to get out from under the car and get on the breaker bar.
Cool that you got a willing helper that's already b*tch-slapped the demons.
You'll be fine!

 

So the Harbor Freights were constructed well enough to hold up? I was going to get something, possibly a snap on wobble.

 

The HF 1/2" wobbles seem to be sturdy, or at least plenty sturdy enough for this job
Actually the only non HF tool that I used for this job was some of the 1/2" extensions, some were Proto, some Craftsman, some ???

 

The FI HFC's are finally arriving tomorrow according to UPS. I think it was a six week lead time.