I had a friend who had Hers sandblasted, turned out great, that would be my suggestion is have it sandblasted. Then base coat and paint. My DH did one for me and He sanded it all by hand, He spent a lot of time on it and then He put some base paint and then painted it. It turned out beautiful. It would have been a lot easier on Him if we would have had it snadblasted, the next one we will.