Help! Can't remove crossmember

[davepl]

So the shop was going to swap my torque converter for me today but the bolts that hold the transmission crossmember, they tell me, were dropped in from the top so they can't get them out. You'd have to remove the cab.

Looking at the teardown photos, though, the bolts always came down from the top. Is there something obvious they're missing? These aren't guys that want to run up hours on me, I trust them - but mistakes happen too.

They think they can get away without having to remove the crossmember by removing the flexplate to give them more room, which they already did.

But if my truck came from the FACTORY like that I'm worried maybe there's something obvious. Here's a picture from "before" powdercoat.

Is it normally hard to get the crossmember out of these?