[Oh Haha]

I didn't mean to mislead you on my suggestion.

When I ran SBC drag cars we always painted the intake a light color as well as any carb spacers, if not plastic or aluminum already.

Headers/exhaust/mufflers were painted black for heat retention which was suppose to help with the exhaust gas or so the old school theory goes.

I forget sometimes that typical "hot rod" tricks don't always apply to our air-cooled engines.

That said, I'd still clearcoat them or paint them silver.