I've used primer for plastics when doing the cowling on my SeaDoo. Didn't make a huge difference. Of course I also did like 12-15 coats of paint - and lots of wet sanding.

Did you do anything to the stock cap bolts? Paint them, replace them, etc?

One of the things I've been thinking about doing is removing the pattern around the bolts. I'd need to get replacement bolts that had a smaller head or I suppose I could grind a mm or so off the current ones.

When I paint my fascia, I'm going to try for a horizontal pattern to make it look like it's been machined. So I may just use two different silver paints in combination. We'll see how it works out on a test piece of plastic first. For now I'll be leaving the buttons - they'll probably match well.

The trickiest part is going to be changing the roundness of the opening in the fascia and then filling in the divet on the left of the handle. Since I'm going to gring the powder coat off it's going to be hard to hide the filled area...

Oh, and for yn0t... Winter tires: NOKIAN if you want the best.
Bruno