Did I ruin my Qlink XF200 exhaust?

[The Thinker]

Hey everyone,

So I have been doing as many free things to my bike as I could to get any extra gains in performance out of it. The last thing to do was gut the cat, which I decided to do today. I broke out the air hammer, 8 inch chisel bit, and my drill with some drill bits. Based on what I have read, it is a very easy job to do, however that was not the case for me. Instead of breaking apart, the cat started compressing into itself like if you crunch up aluminum foil. After many hours of trying to get that thing out, it is now 8 inches down the end of the pipe, and is completely blocking the pipe. I do not have the money for a new muffler, nor the money for any fancy tools, so I need your guys' advice big time. My only thought would be to take the muffler to some metalworking shop and see if they can get it out with some magic super tools that I cant afford .

Any help is GREATLY appreciated, as I am stuck right now.
-TT

[Krasi]

Can't you reach it from the other side, even with a long piece of steel, and bust that sucker off?

[The Thinker]

I wish, but I tried that and it seems there are baffles in the way. I don't know if that's true though because from what I have read it is just a straight pipe to the cat...