dressing up engine bay

I was thinking about sanding down and polishing my upper intake manifold,or maybe painting it a gray/silver with red lettering.I will soon be getting red MSD plug wires also. I know it will be much more work to go with the polishing,but I wanted to know what tools I would need and a proper method for doing this.

sand paper, heat w/e paint so it doesnt dry and flake off... maybe a file? .. some newspaper .. oh and some masking tape if you want to be precise when spray painting

what'd I do is the whole top with the silver.. let that dry then use the tape and cover up the sides of the letters/insides .. and do only the top of the letters w/ the paint... let it dry then peal off tape/newspaper covering the rest...

Something of this sort...

http://gir.droptothetop.com/3400_01.jpg
if the image doesnt show, here is the link.
http://gir.droptothetop.com/3400_01.jpg


Close?

Me personally I wouldnt even bother sanding it down.. I like the rough texture..