Crack in the Catalytic Conconverter shield?

[winniewoo]

1996 Honda Civic EX
After driving 1 1/2 hrs to see my parents at speeds around 70 (That was actually the speed limit on I-10) I noticed right before I got to their house that there was a tinny, metal sounding vibration coming from my engine area. When I started it up the next morning so my Dad could hear it, it did not make the noise immediately. But, once I started driving over to a car care place, it started again. It was loudest at low speeds (10-35 MPH) but once I reached somewhere over 45/50 I couldn't hear it.
The guy at the car care place listened to my car when I got there and said it sounded like the catalytic converter shield. Later in the afternoon they called to say they had looked at it and didn't see any problems with it and that it looked pretty good. I explained that it had to be something making that awful metal noise and he promised to give it a closer look and longer test drive. They called back later and said that actually there was a crack in the catalytic converter shield, but that they couldn't weld it at this time, b/c it was just a crack and not broken all the way. He said that it was not dangerous and was just going to be loud.
Does this sound right? Or could there be some other possible problem?

[Airjer_]

All Honda's have issues with heat shields. If there not real bad they can be tacked, clamped, or wired to stop the vibration. Worst case scenerio the heat shields fall most of the way off and have to be removed. Twice last week I had two Hondas dragging there Cat heat shields. The only thing holding them to the car was the wire harness for the O2 sensor!

Basically if it is making noise there is a resolution to the problem. You just need to find someone who wants to do it!

[AltimainIowa]

The Cat Shield on my '97EX came off when I drove through some deep snow, should I worry about putting it back on b4 spring?