I can tell you that my paint blistered in the front, right above the header area.
I'd also like to add that this was
A) while the sound insulation matt was still in place.
B) while the "heat shield" was still on.
C) while there was no turbo on the car.
IOW, my car was
stock with all of this "heat insulation" in place, and the paint blistered up front and had to be repainted after one year. So that was just a case of crappy paint job.
Then with the repainted hood, its been run with no heat shield, a turbocharger, and no sound insulation matt with -no- issues whatsoever.
Difference? The stock paint that blistered due to reasons OTHER than heat (which one would have assumed had it happened later) was the issue. Cause and effect. You have to make sure you match them up properly or you could make false assumtions. The fact is that the paint is blistered... but thats the only fact (could be the same issue as happened on my stock car). Yes you can paint the shield. Use high temp paint and scruff up the shield first to make the paint stick better.
[ 11-11-2002, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Ducman69 ]