Just want to post this, may help someone in my position.

I bought a 1995 Golf GL with 93k and discovered a bad exhaust rattle after i agreed to the sale and drove it home they way i normally drive.
I did a bit of research and the rattle seemed like it was inside the cat. converter ( from video on youtube) and that it would need to be replaced. Well much to my joy when i took a look at it myself it was just the heat shield that surrounded the front pipe on the exhuast. What is now the front pipe and the cat. is all one piece in my car I assume it is orginal. Could not find a image that looked like it anywhere on the web.
Anyway it was two huge piece of steel about the size of a VHS tape that rusted apart and both pieces were rattling around seperately.
To fix the problem I took a 4" adjustable steel hose clamp and tightened it down sandwiching the pieces of steel on the exhaust as it was before it broke.

No more rattle- Just make sure that the hose clamp has enough thread so when it gets smaller as it tightens it does not stop at the end of the thread rather it stops as a result as the clamp tightening on the pipe.

 

Great job for what you've done here.If your car is making a rattling sound along with ticks or slaps, ou should see if it's coming from the front of the engine.If the rattling ticking slapping sound is coming from the very front of your engine (or the side that has the belts on it) and gets louder or faster when you rev the engine,chances are you have a loose timing chain.