Here's a thread that has some similar discussion as well as my experience covering [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3641273]the cowl.[/link] I didn't consider the plastic cowl - there may very well be problems with heat and distortion with the thin ABS plastic. I was assuming that the pieces were fiberglass. It does take a lot of heat to get the necessary stretching and shrinking to handle compound curves. If you don't try to wrap over both the side and front edges, you may be able to use low enough heat to get it to stick without damaging the parts. As long as you have good adhesion of the paint, I wouldn't see a need to strip it off, but if it isn't stuck really well, it will all come off regardless.