Has anyone had the engine tin above the muffler on a beetle so hot it burns you if you touch it? I have a Vintage Speed system and the muffler sits pretty close to the tin causing a lot of heat transfer after even a short drive, I can touch the rest of the engine above the tinware with fairly minimal heat felt. A heat shield would be the best option but there is not enough room, the other thoughts have been completely wrapping the muffler in exhaust wrap or just covering the top of the muffler with it. Would this affect the muffler in any way ie: hotspots elsewhere, chance of corrosion increasing or brittleness? What have other people done ?

What about a turbo-style heat shield on the muffler? They're only a few mm thick usually.
Similar to what the OEMs use on top of cat converters.

I ended up buying roll of exhaust wrap so will give that a go temporarily, long term I want to put a proper shield in like oem on new cars. Will take a pic tomorrow of before and after tinware temps, see how much difference it makes.

You can buy a heat shield like modern cars use in sheet form from Repco

Bugger, that's what I was after but I went to autobarn and they only had the wrap, tried Bursons in Lismore but they had nothing. Thanks for that Steve, might try a comparison with both but definitely prefer the shield idea

All car parts stores should have heat shield. Even Super Cheap have it. They have several different types. The cheapest is about $60 a 700x 290mm sheet, and can cope with up to 900 degrees

Its really good stuff to work with and you can shape it easily and cut it with tin snips etc, you could maybe get it on eBay, I have some on my car that is 10 years old and still looks like new

I bought a second hand heat shield from a Mercedes muffler at a wrecker for $10, then cut to size and fitted to my rear apron...works great!

ebay for $68
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Platinum-Heatshield-Material-HS1S-700-x-290mm-Supe...

or "heat shield"

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=auto%20heat...