Thanks, I've since cleaned it up some more (was decent, but not finished enough for my tastes) and going to re-polish it again, although may give it a nice brushed look. I'm into details that people don't necessarily notice what they are, but they know something is different, so hence why I say clean it up some more. Also, there are numerous little things I did to the valve cover that most people will not notice /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I'd clean it yourself and if you want to go thru the extra step, use some aircraft stripper as mentioned for the painted areas; most of it is pretty thick so you can brush it on, wait a few minutes, then a hose to rinse/blast it off...might need a couple coatings and wear a respirator as that stuff is nasty.
A tip I did to clean out the inside of the valve cover between the baffle: use steam. I have a portable steam machine and wow does that work great! Mine wasn't terrible, but between all the dust I kicked up and such, I wanted to get it as clean as possible.
As for painting or powdercoat, I don't know what your skill level is in spray painting/prepping, but you can get it painted to look as nice as powdercoating and one thing to do that works great is do your primer, let it set in the sun; follow up with a couple THIN even coats of base paint, let it sit in the sun for a bit, follow it up with a few more thin coats of paint and let it sit but not fully cure, then go over it with some clear so that the heat will allow it to mix in, while it's baking in the sun...let it bake for bit, add a coupel more clears and wow does it look nice...then when you're all done letting it dry (not quite tacky still, but not fully cured), throw it into an oven, or what I do is fire up the charcoal bbq until it stops "ashing" and flaming and use that heat (gets to ~350 F with charcoal, or ~400 F with mequite) and let it bake. will be ultra-durable.