Anyone strip their aluminum valve covers?

[454cid]

I've got a spare set of OEM valve covers for my 454 that I want to swap on when I do gaskets. The paint was flaky years ago, and I used stripper to remove most of the paint..... but some paint remains, and more stripper doesn't seem to do much. Right now, I've got one soaking in pine cleaner diluted with water...(container won't hold both)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them afterwords. I'm leaning towards just runnning them bare aluminum. I've been able to keep my intake manifold looking decent just by keeping it cleaned.... it's not all oxidized like you see some of them online. I thought about vapor blasting, but the one guy locally-ish that does it, I don't think has it down yet. i've seen some of his work online, and it doesn't look as good as what I've seen elsewhere. Besides, the covers I have are a little rough.... a few scrapes and dings. I've also thought about purposely chemically darkening them, but I don't know if I would like that any better than the OEM black paint that I'm kind of tired of.

I'm trying to strip the paint without mechanically changing the surface. They were die-cast originally.

 

[TechNova]

Approx. 80 grit glass bead blasting. It will leave a finer finish than sand blasting, it is less aggressive.
You can clear coat them with automotive clear, gloss or matte

 

[b454rat]

I sanded mine down and wanted to polish em, but needed on the motor when I put in the car. I wanted to blast em clean but never did. I think a finer material would work good...

 

[454cid]

I just checked the valve cover I have soaking in pine cleaner..... the inside is cleaner, but that was already pretty good. No change with the paint remnants... maybe it's too cold. It's only in the 30's today.

Maybe I should buy some new paint stripper, if I can get it.... the stuff I have is old. The consistency was thick and snotty.

 

[TagAllen]

Maybe soak in brake fluid.