ok I’ve painted the engine duck egg blue and all the other parts black and I’m wondering what to do with the rocker cover as it looks rubbish. What have other people done? I was going to paint it but not sure. I wondered about bead blasting it or going over with wet and dry?
Could go for the Hot rod look and just clean and polish, although maybe not as far as a mirror finish. Ali comes up very well with a metal polishing compound and a felt wheel on the angle grinder.
You wouldn't need to properly polish it to make it look good. I polished an old cylinder (turned it into a clock) just using some solvol autosol and a felt disk on the grinder (link) to take all the hard work out of it and it came up very nicely. And then gave it a couple of coats of clear top coat to keep it bright.
VHT crinkle paint looks smashin but not sure if it will stay on ally. I tend not to open the bonnet until something goes bang so I’m not so bothered about looks.