Has anyone found out about doing this yet? Can it be done? Will it crack, or look bad in a short amount of time? I am looking at a New E, but the grey side panels just kill me.

Any info would be great to know........Bob G

Someone mentioned on this site a while back, they saw one painted here in Michigan.
The post(er) was from Michigan (tigernumber6?) Might want to ask him.

if you get a professional shop to do the painting you'll be fine and the panels will be fine ~~ just have to find a shop that knows what they're doing ... when painting flexible surfaces you have to mix in things like plasticizer, flex agent, etc

proper paint technique and no problem....

Yeah, I saw a pretty tricked out Element a while back. It had the composite panels painted to match the rest of the car. It looked pretty natural, like it was supposed to be that way. Took away the unique look, in my opinion, but it didn't look technically bad.

Not sure if you have gotten all the information since this was posted, but my E has the panels painted and I love it. If you want to see pics, send an email to goleaf@hotmail.com and label it as E-PICS

Almost any bodyshop should know how to paint plastic. Almost every car has plastic bumpers these days. Saturns have tons of plastic on them. If a company does the job and it all falls off, I'd demand a refund, because there really isn't any reason for that.

with my paint job I got a three year warranty which made the decision to paint them, that much easier.