it was a couple years or so back so memory
I took my original to a local body shop (actually neighbor), stripped off vynal and he used a bunper repair materail.
when finished with repairs, he suggested spending a few more hours and he thought it would look good painted.
so maybe that helps a little about your concerns.
rest of the story, the local upholtery guy VANISHED with mine!
so after searching for all those $100 ones supposed cluttering garages, even tried Halls (they had them, just too much trouble to pull down from top shelf), I got a $1000 + one of ebay that GunnerZ is suppose to modify and recover. I want to move wiper switches to center