took me about 1 hour to do that. I sandblasted the original and then went through it with 3 grades of sandpaper(wet of course, I think it was 120, 400, 800) then finished it with Mother's aluminum polish. I think the word I am looking for is it looks like stainless finish on kitchen appliance....
the barrel was done similarly but with 5 grades of sandpaper(120, 240, 600, 800 and 1000) and then hit it with the aluminum polish. The finish is a lot more mirror and chrome-like. I need to get it coated somehow though because bare aluminum is prone to scratch....