I used my kitchen oven to soften and reshape thin wall (~3/8") PVC irrigation pipe along with an accurate wired electronic meat thermometer to watch the temperature. Starting at the lowest setting and slowly warming I found that the PVC softened at about 215 degrees Fahrenheit. No smoke, no smell, no HCl, no death.

FWIW, I cut a 12" slice from a 10" diameter pipe, then cut this in half into two arcs. I softened them in the oven and flattened them on the garage floor. I used these flat PVC sheets to make doors for the rest of the pipe to make a cheap sail tube. This worked great and took no time at all. The PVC glues perftectly with regular Oatey PVC glue. I was able to craft and glue hinge brackets and locking mechanism from PVC scraps and PVC glue. Easy stuff.

Also, you can paint PVC by roughing it with 220 grit sandpaper and spraying several light coats of Krylon Fusion plastic paint. No substitutes!