Well, I got a brand new OEM asbestos heat shield pad and stuck it on (it came with adhesive)......and it did nothing to help my problem.
I installed the forward heat shield with the new pad on it (it now has a total of two asbestos pads) and snugged up all four of the bolts that hold the OEM muffler to the bike (two header bolts and two rear muffler support nuts). There
was a gap between the header and the forward heat shield, but it was awfully small (about 0.035").
Well, I scratched my head a bit. I then removed the four muffler bolts and added two thick washers to rearmost of the two studs that connect the rear of the muffler to the rear muffler support. I put the washers between the muffler and the rear muffler support. You can see the washers in this pic, they are silver:
I snugged everything up and then re-measured the heat shield gap. I was now up to 0.050". Not great, but an improvement. Here is what the gap looks like now (you are looking forward and up from underneath the bike toward the rear of the forward heat shield):
Not really the best of fixes, but I was too lazy to take the heat shield back off and hog out the rear mounting hole (perhaps the best fix). Maybe I'll do that the next time I have the bike torn apart.