Several guys have beautiful paint jobs on their cars, some are fiberglass and some are plastic. They can speak to how, why, etc.
I have wanted to paint mine (especially after my wife saw Eric's blue #62 with the graphics and made an unkind comparison to my beat up school car). After looking at the beating mine took in four days on the track, I decided painting was way in the future. I decided to buff up the old girl (no not my wife). I did some wet sanding on the worst scuffs and got my car polisher out with rubbing compound. After burning out two buffers and seriously shortening the life on a third, I got acceptable results on the hood and both front fenders. Marginal results on the other panels due to carpel buffer syndrome. I think I need a proper auto buffer and some industial grade buffing compound. Then finishing it off with the orbital buffer won't be such a job. The panels will buff out to a nice high gloss. Based on the buffing effort, I'd guess the shine will stand up with little maintenance. It looks like a different car and my wife has promised not to make any more rude remarks if I'll stop living in the garage. I think it will look great at little actual out of pocket expense, especially after I add some of Eric's super graphics to give it some bling
By the way, acetone can be used carefully to get the deep scratches/gouges out as it disolves the plastic at a controllable rate. This also has weight saving implications (no not my weight)
Just my
Mike