So long story short, I ended up with a huge black mark on my heat shield. Any suggestions...?

 

Blue Job or Blue Away chrome pipe cleaner. I got some very melted boot off of my wife's pipes with Blue Away. Picked it up at the dealership. But if your pipes aren't chrome I wouldn't use it.

 

Did the same on my V&H bss but I just left it alone (was durring rainy month and didn't care) and after a month it went through many heat cycles and finally dissapeared after turning dark brown. Didn't do any damage to crime either. Sometimes it pays to be lazy.

 

I've found that easy off oven cleaner and the finest grade steel wool will take it off easily and won't dmg your Chrome.

 

+1 on the steel wool but MAKE SURE IT'S 0000 STEEL WOOL.
Been told this by a number of pro's and done it a few times with absolutely no visible marks or scratches.
I was told to always use some sort of "lube" even if it's just WD-40 or water but oven cleaner should work even better. Check the label tho, proly wanna keep it off the paint.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions. You sure the 0000 Steel Wool wont scuff/ scratch the chrome???

 

Try it on a part you can't see.

 

I didn't think about that but I use ultra fine steel wool from 3M on chrome all of the time. Best thing I've ever used to polish.

 

I used Soft Scrub (you know, for stainless pots and pans) and a paper towel to very good effect.

 

In the old days we used to use SOS Pads or Brillo Pads to clean minor rust off our chrome. Never saw any damage from them on the Chrome.