I had the unit boiled out and it's clean but still looks old. Anybody got any ideas? One friend suggested bead blasting

Bead blast then clear coat.

I like bead blast then completely soak in WD-40. It's not shiny and the pores in the metal become saturated and won't pick up the crap off your hands or the oil that flies around the engine bay.

I glass beaded one and used alum oxide on another. in my HF cabinet
The glass took forever but looks pretty damn nice!
The alum oxide stripped the hell out of it & made the surface almost white. Im gonna paint that one with some Wurths gray.

bead blast and then some nice paint