Majority of people I talked to said it can't be done cause the plastic is too soft. That's been disproven as I've seen pics of a painted cover on an S52 engine (the kind in my m3). I talked to the person and they said clean it, sand the hell out of it, prep it, paint, clear coat, done. So unfortunately, it's gonna need sanding. He said sanding and prepping were the important parts and I haven't been able to get him to reply what to use to sand and prep