Yeah I can see how people would go crazy doing it... It's one of those things that seem like a good idea at the time you start doing it, and about 1/4 of the way through the first part you ask yourself what the hell you are doing lol...
Ceramic coating would be nice, but it wasn't in the budget - the wet and dry sandpaper I got was $6.50 at supercheap
That porka motor looks the goods, my motor wont look anywhere near that clean I'm sure, but I'm more worried about the rebuild than keeping it clean at this stage. Besides with the "polished" (I'm using that term loosely for my handywork) covers I'll at least be able to see the dirt, as opposed to the standard black ones. On the timing belt cover I started sanding off the grease initially, was wondering why the paint wasn't coming off as easy as on the valley cover lol. Didn't have any degreaser around, so used the industrial strength hand wash on it instead, worked a charm...