Laptop Fan Mod Pics. Static? Hacking up the case. Filters?

My Acer Aspire 8943G 18.3" gets hot as hell. I have two. On One the case around the fan intake has warped from the heat. For some reason about 3/4th of the vents are covered by a flexible piece of plastic that is sandwiched between the fan and vent. (see pic) There is no way these vents are being utilized. 1) Why would they do this? It is not a filter. It is a solid flimsy piece of plastic. Some type of static shield? Noise? Engineered Obsolescence?*

I was just going to ignore it instead of hacking the case up or taking it apart to get it out. So I ordered some fans (80x10 & 70x10) to mount in place of the ram covers(see pic) hoping that it would increase the airflow to that side of the computer. (see pic) I'll put a thin filter over them but am worried about static, especially here in colorado. It looks like the plastic ram cover is sprayed in some type of metalic paint that makes contact with metallic clips on the case, i'm assuming to make a Faraday cage around the ram. 2) Is What i'm doing okay? Should I use tinfoil around the edges?*

3) I want to go ahead and hack the intake vent too, get that plastic out and screw on a 45x45x6 w/filter. Are there any anti-static or other precautionary steps i should take? Is the static risk nill when the laptop is plugged in? Of course i'll increase the standoff of the laptop so the fans can breath.

Frozencpu.com has the bulk filter material. A+ Super High Density will cost me 3mm thickness. But the Ultra Thin Flexible is only .17mm thick. Does it really filter out the fine stuff? Theres no filtration specs. Or use something else?