about a week ago, looking to duplicate a different key i bethought myself to get a dupe of my 97 honda accord's door/ignition key to replace the one i used to carry in my wallet in case i ever locked myself out. key duplicated, i never tested it to see if it worked but one day out back there, i wanted to fire my motor up as i'd been doing weekly since parking it tagless in a new city but i'd left my other keys upstairs inside the house, so i used the copy in my wallet.
now, this key in the wallet was only supposed to be to unlock the doors, not to fire the thing up tho of course it'd have that capability. it just wasn't copied for that purpose. whatever, that day i fired 'er up with that key and let 'er run a while. it worked fine ... except when it came time to remove the key. it wouldn't come out, resisting at the secondary position, short of fire but powering the accessories. at first i thought it was the key's fault somehow but who knows, maybe it's the lock assembly itself.
long story short, after a few days of the key being in the secondary position the battery's dead and i need the battery to be alive to attend to an altogether different problem i'll get to once i'm able to remove the key, saving my newly-charged battery.
meanwhile i've been able to open that whole steering column area up, thinking to replace the whole column lock cylinder assembly as everything i'd read on the net had indicated all i needed was an 8mm socket to free the assembly from the column but - at least on my particular model - while the heads of those 2 bolts are visible, there are no 8mm bolt heads that i can latch onto to twist 'em loose. no 8mm square or hexagonal or even slotted heads but rather utterly round and rounded blank heads. i am at a loss here as to how to remove these particular bolts holding the assembly to the column, short of taking a chisel to at least one of 'em.
any clues? even Honda Parts at Honda Parts Now | Genuine OEM Honda Auto Parts shows 8mm bolt heads for my VIN, but not on mine, sad to say.

 

I just use a punch and hammer on the shear bolts, as described in this link:

How to replace the ignition switch or troubleshoot (Honda, Acura)

 

Metric bolts that are M8 x 1.25 x 15 can be used as a replacement.

 

so i find this youtube right after i posted the above:

 

thanks redbull-1. just solving (virtually) the shear-bolt removal problem by way of ye old center-punch (looks to be the ticket, it do it do), i am done for the day. i'll letcha know otherwise if this proves not to be the case.