you can buy flat jawed pliers similar to needle nose. The flat jawed plier don't have serations so they wont scar the "shield" as much.
Yeah I thought of that, the only thing I am worried about is not getting the proper "form" of the shield back in place to where it will fit into the IN of the SBM1. Seems like it will be a PITA to get the form back or close to where it originally was ...
Well, you'd be no worse off than you are now, right? But at least you would've tried.
If that doesn't work, I'd ask your friend to take care of it directly, i.e. pay to have the shield/7-pin head replaced.