I ended up purchasing a set of “shields” from Gene Berg Enterprises that go onto the heat exchanger tins and protect that area in the same way the heat exchangers would.
Honestly, it is just a piece of sheet metal with 2 major bends and a minor one with 2 holes drilled into it for the screws.
If I had access to metal fab tools it would take at most 3 minutes or so to cut these out and make them to fit.
But I do not have such things.
They’ll get cleaned up and then painted with a black oil-resistant paint to keep them from rusting.
They offered me 2 pairs at a much cheaper price than 1 pair would cost (per item) so I snagged another set for future performance engine.