Thank you for the compliments.

To answer the questions in order.

It took me around 24 hours of labor to clean, file and sand out the blemishes, roughen the entire surface (by hand with sandpaper), clean again, mask, spray on the black paint and brush on the red.

It could take much less time to perform a similar project, but I am VERY detail orienged about working on my own shit.

For ease of fiding matching paint when fixing nicks and blemishes the paint is flat black and red rust-oleum enamel spray paint.

To do the red I sprayed some into a cap, diluted it with some acetone and brushed it on by hand.

Its certainly not powder coating but it looks good and is easy to touch up.