Carb heat shield . . . anyone try this?

The engine is a '74 360 block/heads with a '66 273 commando 4bbl cast intake and 4bbl carter AFB 4120S. It has the divorced choke (keeping as original as possible) so I can't plug the exhaust cross over.

I'm pretty darn sure I'm having fuel boil/perk vapor lock issues. The car runs fine otherwise, it has a very very slight lean surge while cruising around 60-70. Its just a real pain to start, thats about it. have to crank her for at least 10-15 sec to even get a sputter and it usually takes 2 or 3 tries and lots of pumping to get her to finally catch and stay running (and NO i'm not flooding her . . . )

The annoying thing is that carter AFB 4120 is a weirdo, it doesn't have the regular Carter AVS/Eddy bolt pattern so I cant just go get a phenolic spacer off the shelf, was considering making a wood one lol . . . my buddy did that once and it worked fine. I'm thinking the carb heat shield would be worth trying for now.