For me it looked a lot cleaner and more uniform. I do like the silver color but it had too much oxidation to really come out looking good. It may have looked okay in the pictures but when you were up on it it was very pitted. It would have took one crap ton of work to get it looking all brushed and new aluminum again. And I don't think a lot of work could have even done that. Also it wouldn't be hard to remove the paint...