It's a little more involved than that. For one, it isn't completely flat, along the bottom where the buttons and stuff are is a raised beveled area. From what I can see it looks like a vinyl film was printed with all of the info, stuck onto the plastic, and then laminated over for the front. All of the tach numbers and tick marks are actually on the back of the plastic part, you can feel them and most likely peel/chip them away with your fingernail. I actually considered getting this replicated and maybe just having some custom vinyl decals made...but the whole endeavor would be too much of a pain in the ass. If you wanted to replicate the contours and shape exactly you'd need a mold of it made. For someone to want to produce a replica would most likely cost thousands in computer drawings, measurements, molds etc if you wanted a production run. I don't have the patience or the drive to go about making my own either.

Regarding the ceramic coating I wonder how well it would adhere to the laminate film....At this point I'm not willing to sacrifice another cluster to test the theory, I'm now on my second replacement cluster for just that damn faceplate...

Here's some pics of just the lens. First pic is what happened to mine. Nowhere near as bad as the op but annoying nonetheless. I'm not sure what causes it. I'd imagine heat cycling eventually causes stress cracks. Best course of action would be to not let the sun beat down on it for extended periods of time uncovered. Second pic shows the contouring and beveling of the face. I'm sure it could be replicated, but it wouldn't be cheap.