heat shield gone bad
 

Hello, my friend and I redid the brakes on the front and back this weekend, and painted the calipers as well, but in the process he noticed something bad...

About 6 months ago or so, the infamous annoying heat shield problem happened. I took it to a shop and they 'tack welded' it as they called it.

Now, there is an exhaust leak right next to the Y section where they tack welded on it, but on the single pipe side.

My friend told me I had two options, get a straight pipe and bend it and take the whole section out, removing two of the three cats, or get a new exhaust piece.

Any thoughts?