It's the outside that's painted though after I finished the polishing I decided to spray the inside another colour just to hide the underside of the outside painting.
For cutting all I did was to use a fine jigsaw blade then bevel and polish the cut edge. I tried to follow the broad outline of the instrument cowl top. The measuring for symmetry both sides was a bugger but it worked out ok I think. The plastic more melted than cut cleanly so there were a few stop/go moments to break off cut bit that were hanging on by partly welded bits.