Heat shield help

[Sektor]

Hello everyone, I need some help with taking off the exhaust manifold heat shield on my 4th gen f2a04 prelude. I have googled and read a lot of topics regarding this, but in none of them have i found info that would help my problem.

I am wondering is it possible to take off the heat shield without having to take out the o2 sensor that goes trough the hole on the heat shield? From just looking at it and kinda wiggling it around i go the impression that i have to take out the o2 sensor with the shield still on to be able to take of the shield. Now that's a real problem for me because i live in Serbia and the only way to buy a tool that could POTENTIALLY work on this is to order it on ebay from the UK or US. (I would buy the tool if it could reach the sensor bolt with the shield still on so if anyone used it please tell me)

So I'm just looking from guidance from more experienced people than myself.

I just want to take off the shield strip it and repaint it and put it back on because it looks hideous. I would prefer to do this without taking the o2 sensor out if its possible.

Is there more than 1 way to do this?

Would this tool reach the sensor bolt even with the shield still on?

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/LASER-TOOLS-22mm ... wuDGt3PNSQ

Or do i have to take the shield off first somehow?

Sorry for the long post, and sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm just new to the hobby and don't want to mess anything up

[indigolemon]

Welcome! Can you take a picture of what you mean? Does the cabling from the sensor not have a plug that can be disconnected?

[Sektor]

Thank you. Well i managed to get it off without taking out the o2 but it wasn't easy wiggling the wires and connector trough this hole all while the actual sensor part is blocking its way. So now that it's off I was thinking of maybe cutting this where i marked it on the picture to make it 5x easier to put on/pull off, thoughts?

[indigolemon]

Yes, I like your thinking. A sneaky cut there before paint.