you can just get a can of smoke paint by tamiya.... thats what i did.. fairly simple... and it appears that u can never do too many coats of it.. i did 3 coats of it.. but hardly notice any different between 2 to 3... and i really like that effect... at certain angle it appears almost clear.. but at some angles it appears almost completely black.. i smoked the "rear bonnet' so it appears almost like a tinted window over the engine compartment.... u have to look at it closely to see the difference.. but i like this subtleness... i havent really taken it outside under the sun to see how it looks like cuz i have been having crappy weather these few days.
I am still waiting to get my LED kit together to see how that looks behind the smoked rear light housing.

as for the lotus shell.. i thought it fit pretty well... its my first time doing this.... so i was pretty much guessing where to drill the holes for the body post... but it seems ok... i am a bit of a perfectiionist in some sense.. so i would not say that its a perfect fit... (ie the wheels do not exactly lined up with the body... at least thts what i feel) but it was a pretty good fit... not very noticable if u dont start bringing out the ruler...

thanks fugadude.